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Dessert

Artichoke Creams

A baked custard made from artichoke purée, spinach, cream, stock, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 192 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Artichoke Creams

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Make a purée of artichoke bottoms.

  2. In a bowl, combine the artichoke purée, spinach, cream, and stock.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

  4. Add the egg yolks and beat well.

  5. Season with salt, pepper, cayenne, and nutmeg.

Finish and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites.

  2. Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Grease the moulds with clarified butter.

  4. Fill the moulds three-quarters full with the mixture.

  5. Bake in a water bath or steam until firm.

  6. Turn out to serve.

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 + spinachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

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

  2. Spinach + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Artichoke + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together156 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichoke purée
Provides the main body and flavour of the custard.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken and set the custard while adding richness.
Egg whites
Whipped to lighten the mixture and help it rise and set with air.
Strong stock
Adds savoury depth and moisture to the custard.

The step that matters

Gently fold the egg whites into the mixture. Whipped whites hold air that gives lightness; overmixing or deflating them with vigorous stirring makes the custard dense and heavy once baked.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits about as well
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Parsleyfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, spinach, cream, egg, pepper, butter. 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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