Name: Boiled Leeks, Cream Dressing
Ingredients: young leeks; salt; rich cream sauce

Why it works: Cream and sauce are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,787 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Boiled Leeks, Cream Dressing

Ingredients

young leeks
salt
rich cream sauce

Directions

Select young leeks and remove the outer leaves and roots.
Wash the leeks and cut them into 2-inch pieces.
Blanch the leeks in salted water until tender.
Drain the leeks and arrange them in a deep vegetable dish.
Pour rich cream sauce over the leeks before serving.

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.

Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,787 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Leek + creamtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together158 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Leek + saucetop 26% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together56 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).