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Soup

A French Soup of Leeks

A creamy soup made from leeks, butter, flour, milk, stock, and finished with egg yolk, served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

A French Soup of Leeks

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leeks

  1. Trim and slice the leeks, discarding the green tops.

Make the soup

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and fry the leeks until softened.

  2. Stir in the flour and cook for a minute.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk and white stock, stirring constantly.

  4. Season with parsley, salt, and pepper.

  5. Cook for 40 minutes.

  6. Remove from heat and stir in the egg yolk.

  7. Serve with croutons.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Leek + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together328 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Form the main body of the soup and give it a mild, savoury flavour as they soften.
Butter
Softens the leeks and carries flavour, adding richness to the soup.
Flour
Cooked briefly with the butter, it thickens the milk and stock into a smooth body.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body, making the soup smooth and rounded.
Egg yolk
Stirred in off the heat, it enriches and thickens the soup for a silky texture.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat. Added to a boiling soup it can scramble and turn grainy, so it is stirred in after removing the pan from the heat.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, parsley, pepper, egg):

  1. Shallotfits about as well
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, parsley, pepper, egg. 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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