Why it works: Leek and vinegar work together. They rank in the top 24% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 97 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Leeks with White Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Trim the roots and outer leaves of the leeks, cutting the green ends off.
Wash the leeks well and place them in boiling water with salt and vinegar.
Boil uncovered for 45 minutes.
Serve the leeks on hot buttered toast without crust, and pour white sauce over them.
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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Leek + vinegartop 24% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together97 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
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