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 the leeks
Cut the leeks into 1-inch pieces, using mostly the white parts.
Pour boiling water over the leeks and let them stand for 10 minutes.
Discard the water.
Simmer the soup
Place the leeks in a saucepan with the stock and boil for 4 to 5 hours, skimming occasionally.
When the leeks are soft and the soup is thickened, season with salt and pepper.
Serve
Pour the soup into a hot tureen containing slices of the roll that have been dried in the oven.
Serve very 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
- Leeks
- Provide the main flavor and, as they soften during long simmering, body to the soup.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base that carries the flavor and fully cooks the leeks.
- Roll
- Dried slices in the tureen soak up some broth and give the soup a bread-based texture.
The step that matters
Long simmering with skimming. Boiling for hours reduces the liquid and concentrates flavor, so the soup can turn overly thick or salty if not watched. Skimming removes foam and impurities that would otherwise cloud the broth and taste bitter.
“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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