Why it works: Leek and cream work together. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 158 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓
Pilchard and Leek Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Trim the coarse leaves from the leeks and cut the white part into equal lengths.
Scald the leeks in salted water until tender.
Soak the salted pilchards in cold water overnight.
Assemble and bake
Line a pie dish with pastry and layer the leeks inside.
Place the soaked pilchards between the layers of leeks.
Cover the pie with pastry and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for about 40 minutes.
Finish
Once baked, remove the cover.
Drain off the gravy.
Pour in the heavy cream.
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 + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together158 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Leeks
- Soften when scalded and form the tender layers that hold the filling together.
- Salted pilchards
- Provide the savoury, salty fish flavour that defines the pie.
- Heavy cream
- Adds richness and fat, giving the finished filling a smooth, moist texture.
- Plain pastry
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns during baking.
The step that matters
Soaking the salted pilchards. Salted fish is very salty, so soaking overnight in cold water draws out excess salt. Without it, the pie can taste overly salty, especially with the reduced gravy and added cream.
“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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