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Pairing

Leek + Mace

A good pairing. Cooks put them together in 209 recipes, and they share 6 flavor molecules: the top 24% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikelow
Cooked together209 recipes
Ranktop 24% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Leek Mace
255leek only 6shared 28mace only Leek · 261 Mace · 34
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do leek and mace go together?

Yes. 209 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 6 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 24% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

They overlap on 6 flavor molecules: 18% of mace's 34. Among the shared key aromas are eugenol (clove, spicy) and geraniol (rose, geranium). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What each one brings

leek

The tartness. Sour notes make up 18% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 3% for mace. It carries 255 molecules mace doesn't have.

mace

The herbal side. Herbal notes make up 31% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 6% for leek. It carries 28 molecules leek doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Nutmeg: the best fit for both, top 6% of pairs with leek, top 4% with mace.
  • Turnip: top 1% of pairs with leek, top 21% with mace.
  • Winter savory: top 2% of pairs with leek, top 11% with mace.
  • Sorrel: top 1% of pairs with leek, top 27% with mace.

Ranked by the average of its two pairing scores. Only foods used in at least 100 recipes are suggested.

Recipes with leek and mace

We have no browsable recipe that lists both leek and mace.

Can you swap one for the other?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: leek has 255 molecules mace doesn't, and mace has 28 that leek doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 6 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 255 only in leek and the 28 only in mace.

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Leek and mace questions

Do leek and mace go together?

A good pairing. Cooks put them together in 209 recipes, and they share 6 flavor molecules: the top 24% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do leek and mace taste good together?

They overlap on 6 flavor molecules: 18% of mace's 34. Among the shared key aromas are eugenol (clove, spicy) and geraniol (rose, geranium). Most of what they share is background chemistry many foods carry, so the overlap does little for the smell.

What goes with leek and mace?

Nutmeg is the best third ingredient: top 6% of pairs with leek and top 4% with mace. Turnip and winter savory also fit both.

Can I use mace instead of leek?

Not really. Each has a lot the other lacks: leek has 255 molecules mace doesn't, and mace has 28 that leek doesn't. Treat them as partners, not stand-ins. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

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2

Two ingredients gives the full side-by-side breakdown; add a third to see a similarity matrix across all of them (up to 6).

Ranks compare this pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. Molecule counts are what the studies and databases we aggregate have reported for each ingredient: a measure of coverage, not a full census. How we score pairs

Cite this analysis
Plain text
Compound Kitchen (2026). Compound similarity analysis: Leek vs Mace. https://compkitchen.com/compare/leek-vs-mace. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_leek_vs_mace_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Leek vs Mace},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/leek-vs-mace},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

Methodology DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.19719459 · CC BY 4.0 · Citations are a request, not a requirement.