Why it works: Leek and turnip match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Stocks and Soups
Ingredients
Directions
Empty the pot every night and dry it in the air after washing.
Ensure cleanliness to prevent stock from souring.
Use a stock pot or a stout saucepan with a good-fitting lid.
Add scraps of meat, bones, and optional vegetables in moderation.
Boil the stock daily in warm weather and every other day in winter.
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 + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,173 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,002 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Leek + thymetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together360 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Celery + turniptop 2% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,418 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, ham, celery, leek, carrot, turnip, thyme):
- Parsnipfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Lettucefits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against meat, ham, celery, leek, carrot, turnip, thyme. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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