Name: Jerusalem Artichokes
Ingredients: Jerusalem artichokes; salt; lemon juice; water; French sauce or white sauce (optional)

Why it works: Jerusalem artichoke and lemon share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 72 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Jerusalem Artichokes

Ingredients

Directions

Peel the Jerusalem artichokes and place them in cold water with salt and a little lemon juice to prevent discoloration.
Bring a pot of salted water to a boil and add the artichokes.
Boil gently for 20 to 30 minutes until tender, covering the saucepan with a lid.
Drain well and serve immediately to avoid discoloration.
Optionally, pour French or white sauce over them before serving.

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.

Jerusalem artichoke + lemontop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together72 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Jerusalem artichoke + saucetop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together97 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + saucetop 30% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,598 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).