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Leek Beoth

A hearty broth made with hen or rabbit, leeks, rice, thyme, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 360 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Leek Beoth

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the broth

  1. Cut the hen or rabbit into pieces the size of an egg or leave whole.

  2. Boil in 1 gallon of water for at least 1.5 hours, skimming occasionally.

Finish the broth

  1. Add the leeks, rice, pepper, salt, and thyme.

  2. Boil gently for another 1.5 hours.

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.

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 + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together360 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Leek + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together161 recipes

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

  4. Rice + thymetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together912 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Hen or rabbit
Gives the broth its meaty flavor and body as it simmers for a long time.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the broth.
Rice
Releases starch as it cooks, thickening the broth and adding body.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth during the first boil. Foam and fat rise to the surface as the meat simmers. Skimming them off keeps the broth clearer and less greasy.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rabbit, rice, pepper, thyme):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against rabbit, rice, pepper, thyme. 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.

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