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Artichoke Soup

A soup made from artichokes, potatoes, milk, water, butter, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel, wash, and chop the artichokes and potatoes into small pieces.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook the vegetables in the milk and water until tender.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve and return it to the saucepan.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the butter, pepper, and salt, then bring to a boil.

  2. Serve hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Artichoke + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  5. Artichoke + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,170 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Provide the main flavor and body of the soup once cooked and puréed.
Potatoes
Break down during cooking to thicken the soup and give it a smooth texture.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess to the cooked vegetables.
Butter
Adds fat for a rounder, silkier mouthfeel at the end.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Straining the cooked vegetables breaks down their fibers and removes lumps, which is what gives the soup its smooth, even texture. Pressing thoroughly through the sieve matters more than the exact pressure.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Spinachfits about as well
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, milk, butter, pepper. 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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