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Artichokes, to Boil

Boiled artichokes served with a sauce made from reserved cooking liquid, milk, vinegar, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 381 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Artichokes, to Boil

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and peel the artichokes.

  2. Soak them in water with vinegar for 30 minutes.

Cook

  1. Drain the water and place the artichokes in a saucepan.

  2. Cover with cold water and add the milk and salt.

  3. Bring to a boil.

  4. Reduce heat and simmer for about 1 hour.

Serve

  1. Reserve 1/2 pint of the cooking liquid to make a sauce.

  2. Serve the artichokes and pour the sauce over them.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Artichoke + milktop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together218 recipes

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

  3. Vinegar + milktop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
The main vegetable; simmering softens the leaves and heart until tender enough to eat.
Vinegar
Acid that helps keep the cut artichokes from darkening during soaking.
Milk
Adds richness and a mild, soft sweetness to the cooking liquid and the sauce made from it.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 1 hour. Once boiling, lowering the heat to a gentle simmer cooks the artichokes evenly and keeps them tender. A hard, rolling boil can break up the leaves and cook the outside faster than the heart.

“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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