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Soup

Cock-a-leekie

A dish of capon simmered with leeks, prunes and raisins in water or broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and raisin share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and 2 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cover the capon with water or broth and bring to a boil.

  2. Add the chopped leeks and boil for 1 hour.

  3. Remove the capon and cut the meat from the bones.

  4. Return the meat to the pot and add another batch of leeks.

  5. Add salt, pepper, prunes, and raisins, then boil for an additional 30 minutes until ready to serve.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Leek + raisintop 18% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2 recipes

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

  2. Veal + leektop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together334 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  3. Leek + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together965 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  4. Veal + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,049 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + raisintop 20% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together582 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Capon
Provides the main meat and rich flavour that the broth carries.
White leeks
Soften during boiling and add a mild, sweet onion-like flavour to the broth.
Raisins
Add sweetness and a soft, chewy texture as they plump in the liquid.
Prunes
Add sweetness and depth, and soften into the broth as they cook.

The step that matters

Boiling the leeks and meat together. Leeks cooked at a hard boil for a full hour can turn mushy and cloudy, while the meat can toughen if the liquid is too rough. Keeping a gentle simmer helps the broth stay clear and the meat tender.

Flavor stand-ins for the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, leek, pepper):

  1. Lemonbetter flavor fit
  2. Limebetter flavor fit
  3. Orangebetter flavor fit
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, leek, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.

More cock-a-leekie recipes

Soup 41

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