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Artichoke Soup

A soup made with artichokes, onions, milk, bone stock, vinegar, lemon juice, peppercorns, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Artichoke and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 636 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Peel the artichokes and soak them in vinegar and water for 1 hour to maintain color.

Make the soup

  1. In a pot, combine ½ pint of milk with the bone stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the artichokes, onions, and peppercorns to the boiling mixture and cook for 1 hour.

  3. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve using a wooden spoon.

  4. Stir in the remaining milk and add salt to taste.

  5. Return the soup to the saucepan and heat until it boils.

  6. If the soup is not thick enough, sprinkle in a little sago or semolina while heating.

Serve

  1. Serve with fried bread.

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. Artichoke + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together636 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Artichoke + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together738 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Artichoke + vinegartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together381 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 sieved.
Milk
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the soup.
Bone stock
Forms the savory liquid base that carries the soup's flavor.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma as they cook into the broth.
Sago or semolina (in the method)
Thickens the soup if it is too thin.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a fine sieve using a wooden spoon.. Pressing the cooked artichokes, onions and liquid through a fine sieve breaks down the fibres and solids so the soup becomes smooth. Skipping or rushing this leaves a grainy, stringy texture.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, milk, vinegar, lemon. 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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