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Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup made from artichokes, leeks, water, milk, butter, egg yolks, and cream, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Artichoke and leek share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash and clean the artichokes and leeks.

Make the soup

  1. Boil them in water and milk with the butter until soft.

  2. Press the mixture through a sieve into a clean saucepan.

  3. Season the soup to taste with pepper and salt.

Finish and serve

  1. Beat the egg yolks and cream together.

  2. Pour the hot soup into the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan and serve immediately.

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 + leektop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together965 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Provide the main body and flavour of the soup once boiled and sieved.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like aroma and body to the soup base.
Egg yolks
Thicken the soup into a smooth, creamy texture when gently heated.
Cream
Adds richness and fat, giving a silkier mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the simmering vegetables.

The step that matters

Adding the hot soup to the egg mixture. Pouring hot soup in slowly while stirring constantly tempers the eggs, warming them gradually. Adding it too fast or letting the mixture boil can scramble the yolks and leave the soup grainy instead of smooth.

Swap the leek

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, milk, butter, egg, cream, 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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