Why it works: Leek and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,326 recipes. Both carry ethyl butyrate, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Leeks and Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Boil leeks in water until tender.
For each cup of leek tea, dissolve 1 teaspoon of Bovril or Liebig's Extract.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
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.
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Leek + oniontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,326 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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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
Swap the leek
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Carrotfits better
- Potatofits better
- Leekthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against onion, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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