Name: To Blanc Artichoke As Well As Other Vegetables
Ingredients: ¼ pound fat bacon, diced; a little beef suet, diced; 1 tablespoon fresh butter; a little salt; 1 lime, thinly sliced; water, enough to cover the ingredients

Why it works: Beef and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,847 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

To Blanc Artichoke As Well As Other Vegetables

Ingredients

Directions

Combine diced bacon, beef suet, butter, salt, lime slices, and enough water in a pot.
Bring to a simmer and let it stew for 30 minutes.
Add the artichoke bottoms and stew them briefly in the mixture.
Serve with your choice of sauce.

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.

Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,847 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Beef + limetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together539 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter + limetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,339 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Bacon: Renders fat that adds richness and savoury flavour to the cooking liquid.
Beef suet: Adds fat that gives a rich, moist texture to the stew.
Butter: Adds fat and a rounded, creamy flavour to the liquid.
Lime: Adds acidity and a bright citrus note that balances the rich fats.