Why it works: Chicken and leek work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 165 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the leeks, trim the heads and roots, and cover with boiling water for 5 minutes.
Cut the leeks into pieces.
Draw and truss the chicken, then place it in a kettle with the leeks and stock.
Simmer
Cover and simmer slowly for 3 hours, skimming at the first boil.
Remove the chicken, discard the skin, and cut the meat into dice.
Finish and serve
Place the chicken in a tureen.
Press the soup through a puree sieve, return it to the kettle, and bring to a boil.
Season with salt and pepper, pour over the chicken, and serve.
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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Chicken + leektop 5% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together165 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
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Chicken + peppertop 8% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together19,957 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Leek + peppertop 9% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together965 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat for serving and flavours the stock as it simmers.
- Leeks
- Give the soup its main body and mild onion-like flavour once pressed through a sieve.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the chicken and leeks.
The step that matters
Skimming at the first boil. Skimming removes the foam that rises as proteins coagulate, keeping the broth clear and clean-tasting. Simmering slowly rather than boiling keeps the meat tender and the broth clear.
“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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