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Soup

Leek Milk Soup.

A simple soup made with grits, milk, shredded leek, salt, and a pinch of sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Leek Milk Soup.

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the grits in new milk until thick like cream.

  2. Shred the leek and add it to the mixture.

  3. Stir in salt and a pinch of sugar.

  4. Serve hot.

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.

  1. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Milk + leektop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together200 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Leek + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together278 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Grits
Thickens the milk as it cooks, giving the soup a creamy body.
New milk
Cooks with the grits to form the creamy base and adds richness.
Leek
Adds mild onion-like aroma and flavour to the soup.

The step that matters

Boil the grits in new milk until thick like cream. Grits thicken as their starch swells and gelatinises in hot liquid. Stopping too early leaves the soup thin, while overcooking and scorching the milk can make it stick and taste burnt. Stir often to keep the texture smooth.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sugar):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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