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Jerusalem Artichokes, a LA Reine

A dish of boiled Jerusalem artichokes topped with a cream and flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 116 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Jerusalem Artichokes, a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and wipe the artichokes.

  2. Cut one end of each artichoke flat and trim the other end to a point.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the artichokes in equal parts milk and water until done.

  2. Remove the artichokes and place them upright in a serving dish.

  3. In a saucepan, combine cream, flour, butter, mace, and salt; heat until thickened.

  4. Sauce the artichokes with the cream mixture.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Jerusalem artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together116 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Jerusalem artichoke + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together182 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Jerusalem artichokes
Form the main body of the dish and provide its mild, tender texture when boiled.
Cream
Gives the sauce richness and a smooth, silky body.
Flour
Thickens the cream mixture into a sauce as it heats.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the sauce.

The step that matters

Heating the cream mixture until thickened. Flour must be cooked with the cream and butter over gentle heat long enough to swell and thicken the sauce, and heating too fast can scorch the milk solids or leave the flour tasting raw and the sauce lumpy.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (jerusalem artichoke, milk, cream, flour, butter):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against jerusalem artichoke, milk, cream, flour, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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