Name: Broths, Gravies, and Soups
Ingredients: 7 cups water (or meat broth); 1 good-sized fowl; 2-3 leeks, cut into 1-inch pieces; pepper; coarse sea salt

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 ↓

Broths, Gravies, and Soups

Ingredients

Directions

In a large pot, combine water and the fowl.
Add 2-3 leeks, pepper, and coarse sea salt.
Boil slowly for about 1 hour.
Add more leeks and continue to boil for an additional 45 minutes.

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).
Meat + leektop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together184 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Meat + peppertop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,777 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl: Provides the main meat and rich flavor that gives the broth its body.
Leeks: Add a mild onion-like aroma and sweetness as they soften in the simmering liquid.