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Soup

Leek Soup

A soup made with leeks, potatoes, and celery seed simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Leek Soup

Why it works: Leek and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Leek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare the leeks and potatoes, then cut them into slices.

  2. Melt the dripping in a good-sized saucepan.

  3. Add the sliced vegetables and sauté them briefly.

Simmer and serve

  1. Add 1 quart of boiling water, pepper, salt, and the celery seed in a muslin bag.

  2. Boil for 1 hour, remove the celery seed bag, and serve.

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. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Leek + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Potato + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup as they soften during cooking.
Potatoes
Break down as they cook, giving the soup a thicker, creamier texture.
Dripping
Adds fat for sautéing the vegetables and carries flavour into the soup.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, pepper, celery):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, celery. 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 leek soup recipes

Scotch 9Chicken 4Potato 4Welsh 3 See all 47 →

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