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Pairing

Leek + Plum

Promising but untested: they share 228 flavor molecules (strong aroma overlap), yet only 5 recipes use both. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs.

Smell alikestrong
Cooked together5 recipes
Ranktop 20% of pairs
Try them in the pairing tool Leek Plum
33leek only 228shared 153plum only Leek · 261 Plum · 381
Circle size = number of flavor molecules on record. Overlap = molecules they share.

Do leek and plum go together?

Possibly. 5 recipes in our collection combine them, and they share 228 flavor molecules. That places them in the top 20% of every ingredient pair we score.

Why they work

Almost everything leek carries, plum has too: 228 of leek's 261 flavor molecules also occur in plum. Among the shared key aromas are ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity) and 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

What each one brings

leek

The sulfurous side. Sulfurous notes make up 8% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 2% for plum. It carries 33 molecules plum doesn't have.

plum

The fruit. Fruity notes make up 25% of its labelled aroma molecules, against 11% for leek. It carries 153 molecules leek doesn't have.

Add a third ingredient

  • Thyme: the best fit for both, top 1% of pairs with leek, top 6% with plum.
  • Shallot: top 1% of pairs with leek, top 12% with plum.
  • Chervil: top 1% of pairs with leek, top 14% with plum.
  • Sorrel: top 1% of pairs with leek, top 18% with plum.

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

Recipes with leek and plum

We have no browsable recipe that lists both leek and plum. With this much shared aroma, it is the kind of novel pairing worth testing.

Can you swap one for the other?

Only partly. Almost all of leek's flavor molecules (228 of 261) are also found in plum, but plum has 153 that leek lacks. Leek gives you part of plum's character without most of its fruit. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

All 228 shared molecules

See every shared molecule grouped by chemical class, with key aromas marked, plus the 33 only in leek and the 153 only in plum.

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Leek and plum questions

Do leek and plum go together?

Promising but untested: they share 228 flavor molecules (strong aroma overlap), yet only 5 recipes use both. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs.

Why do leek and plum taste good together?

Almost everything leek carries, plum has too: 228 of leek's 261 flavor molecules also occur in plum. Among the shared key aromas are ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity) and 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

What goes with leek and plum?

Thyme is the best third ingredient: top 1% of pairs with leek and top 6% with plum. Shallot and chervil also fit both.

Can I use plum instead of leek?

Only partly. Almost all of leek's flavor molecules (228 of 261) are also found in plum, but plum has 153 that leek lacks. Leek gives you part of plum's character without most of its fruit. This compares flavor only; texture, moisture and the job each does in a dish matter too.

Compare other ingredients

1
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 Plum. https://compkitchen.com/compare/leek-vs-plum. Accessed 2026-11-04.
BibTeX
@misc{compkitchen_compare_compound_similarity_analysis_leek_vs_plum_2026,
  title  = {Compound similarity analysis: Leek vs Plum},
  author = {{Compound Kitchen}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://compkitchen.com/compare/leek-vs-plum},
  note   = {Accessed: 2026-11-04}
}

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