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Boiled Leeks with White Sauce

Boiled leeks served on buttered toast with white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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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

Prepare

  1. Trim the roots and outer leaves of the leeks, leaving them 6 inches long. Wash the leeks thoroughly.

Cook

  1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, add salt and vinegar, then add the leeks.

  2. Boil uncovered for 45 minutes.

Serve

  1. Serve the leeks on hot buttered toast and pour white sauce over them.

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 + vinegartop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together97 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Vinegar + saucetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,844 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Leek + saucetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together56 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Are the main vegetable, becoming tender and mild as they boil.
White sauce
Adds creamy richness and moisture that complements the mild leeks.
Buttered toast
Gives a crisp-soft base and absorbs some of the buttery sauce and leek juices.

The step that matters

Boil uncovered for 45 minutes. Boiling for the full time brings the leeks fully tender throughout; stopping early leaves the thick white parts firm and fibrous.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, sauce):

  1. Mustardfits better
  2. Horseradishfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, sauce. 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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