Why it works: Artichoke and sauce work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 462 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Artichokes, Boiled
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the artichokes in several waters.
Cut off the stems and trim the leaves if necessary.
Boil and serve
Put the artichokes into boiling water and add 1 teaspoon of salt for each quart of water.
If the water is hard or the artichokes are old, add a piece of baking soda.
Keep the saucepan uncovered and boil quickly for 25 to 30 minutes until tender.
Drain well and serve with Hollandaise sauce or oiled butter.
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.
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Artichoke + saucetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together462 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Globe artichokes
- Provide the tender edible heart and leaf bases that become soft when boiled.
- Salt
- Seasons the boiling water so the artichokes take on flavour as they cook.
- Baking soda
- Raises the water's alkalinity, which can help older or hard-water-cooked artichokes soften and keep a greener colour.
The step that matters
Keep the saucepan uncovered and boil quickly. Boiling uncovered lets volatile compounds that cause a dull or off flavour escape, and a rapid boil keeps the artichokes moving so they cook evenly until tender.
“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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