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Leek Soup

A soup made with leeks, potatoes, butter, and onions, simmered in boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Leek Soup

Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Leek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the leeks and cut off the roots.

  2. Slice the white part of the leeks thinly.

  3. Peel the potatoes and dice them.

  4. Place the diced potatoes in a bowl of cold water.

Make the soup

  1. In a soup pot, melt the butter with the leeks and onion over medium heat.

  2. Cook the leeks and onion for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

  3. Add the boiling water, potatoes, salt, and pepper.

  4. Cook for at least 30 more minutes.

  5. Serve very hot.

  6. Optionally, add the white stalks of 4 or 5 cibols or 1 finely chopped shallot with the leeks.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,326 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

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

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

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  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
Give the soup its mild, sweet onion-like flavor and body as they soften.
Potatoes
Break down during cooking to thicken the soup and add body.
Butter or drippings
Carries the leeks and onion in a fat, adding richness and helping them soften and sweeten.
Onion
Adds aromatic depth that builds the base flavor of the soup.

The step that matters

Cook the leeks and onion for 20 minutes, stirring frequently. Gently softening the leeks in fat draws out their sweetness without browning them. Stirring prevents scorching on the pot bottom and keeps the flavor mild.

Swap the leek

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, pepper, bread, onion. 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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