Name: Cock-a-leeky Soup
Ingredients: 1 scrag of mutton or small knuckle of veal; 1 large fowl; 3-4 large leeks, cut into ½ inch pieces; 3 quarts of good broth; pepper to taste; coarse sea salt to taste

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 ↓

Cock-a-leeky Soup

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine the mutton or veal, fowl, and leeks.
Simmer in the broth for 1 hour.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Add more leeks and boil for an additional 45 minutes.
Serve the soup with all ingredients together.

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.

Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together965 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Mutton + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together5,442 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Mutton + leektop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together226 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Mutton or veal: Gives the broth body and rich, savory flavor as it simmers.
Fowl: Adds deep meaty flavor and tender meat to the soup as it simmers.
Leeks: Soften during simmering and contribute a mild, sweet onion-like flavor.
Broth: Forms the cooking liquid that carries the flavor of the meats and leeks.