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Artichokes Al Ixferxo

Stuffed artichokes with anchovy, garlic, bread, butter, cream, and egg yolks, served with buttered bananas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Artichoke and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 600 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Artichokes Al Ixferxo

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Trim the artichokes by cutting off the tops and ends of the leaves.

  2. Boil the artichokes in salted water for 15 minutes, then let cool.

  3. Remove the hearts and tender leaves, chop, and crush through a colander.

Make the filling

  1. In a pan, heat the butter and sweet oil until hot.

  2. Add the anchovies, dissolve well, and remove bones.

  3. Stir in the garlic, parsley, and grated bread, and cook for 8-10 minutes.

  4. Mix the chopped artichoke hearts with soaked bread, butter, cream, pepper, salt, and egg yolks.

Stuff and bake

  1. Stuff the artichokes with the mixture and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

Make the sauce and bananas

  1. For the sauce, melt butter, stir in flour, and add cream.

  2. Place the peeled and halved bananas on a buttered dish and baste with melted butter, sugar, and lemon juice.

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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together600 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Artichoke + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together524 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichokes
Their tender hearts and leaves form the body of the stuffing.
Anchovies
Dissolve into the fat to add deep savory flavor to the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling and the sauce.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set when baked.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling and the sauce.
Bananas
Caramelize with sugar and butter, adding sweetness and browning.

The step that matters

Dissolving the anchovies in the hot butter and oil. Anchovies must melt fully into the fat so the filling is smooth and evenly savory. Undissolved pieces stay salty and chewy, and the fat carries the flavor through the mixture.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, butter, garlic, parsley, bread, pepper, egg):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, butter, garlic, parsley, bread, pepper, egg. 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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