Why it works: Leek and pepper work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 965 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Leek Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare the sheep's head by cleaning it thoroughly and splitting it in half.
Remove the brains and place the head in boiling water.
Simmer
Add the chopped leeks and season with pepper and salt.
Simmer gently for 4 hours.
Thicken and serve
Mix oatmeal with cold water until smooth to thicken the soup.
Pour the oatmeal mixture into the soup, stirring until well blended.
Serve hot.
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.
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Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together965 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sheep's head
- Provides the meat and rich, savoury flavour that gives the broth its body.
- Leeks
- Add a mild onion-like sweetness and aroma as they soften in the broth.
- Oatmeal
- Starch swells in the hot liquid, thickening the soup to a heavier texture.
The step that matters
Thickening with oatmeal. Oatmeal must be mixed smooth with cold water first, then stirred into hot soup. Added dry or lumpy, the starch clumps and does not thicken evenly.
“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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