Skip to main content
Main

Artichoke Soup

A creamy soup made from stewed artichokes, almonds, egg yolks, and veal broth, seasoned with salt, cayenne, thyme, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Artichoke Soup

Why it works: Artichoke and almond share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the artichokes

  1. Clean the artichoke bottoms and chokes.

  2. Soak them in milk for 1 hour.

  3. Stew the soaked artichokes gently with butter and flour until tender.

  4. Remove the artichokes.

  5. Mash them.

  6. Rub through a fine sieve.

Make the soup

  1. Simmer the mashed artichokes over low heat with young onions, thyme, and parsley.

  2. In a mortar, pound the almonds, egg yolks, and sugar together.

  3. Add the almond mixture to the veal broth and season with salt and cayenne pepper.

  4. Heat the mixture for a few minutes before serving.

Alternative method and finish

  1. Alternatively, boil chopped artichokes in rich stock until tender. Then sieve.

  2. Mix the sieved artichokes with cream to thicken the soup. Add stock. Warm without boiling.

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 + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together44 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Artichoke + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Artichoke bottoms and chokes
Form the main body of the soup, giving it its flavour and thick texture once puréed.
Butter
Enriches the artichokes during stewing, adding richness and carrying flavour.
Flour
Thickens the artichokes as they stew, helping the purée hold body.
Egg yolks
Add richness and body to the broth, helping it become smooth and creamy.
Veal broth
Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the other flavours.
Cream
Adds richness and thickness to the sieved artichokes, giving a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk and almond mixture to the broth. Egg yolks thicken when heated, so if the soup boils after they are added they can curdle and turn grainy. Warming gently keeps the texture smooth and silky.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (artichoke, milk, butter, flour, egg, sugar, veal):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Pistachiofits less well
  4. Lentilsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against artichoke, milk, butter, flour, egg, sugar, veal. 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.

More artichoke soup recipes

Jerusalem 55Brown 3 See all 70 →

You might also like

Almond SoupAlmond Soup60 recipesVeal PattiesVeal Patties50 recipesAlmond SaladAlmond Salad6 recipesBeef, Mutton, or Veal BrothBeef, Mutton, or Veal Broth6 recipes