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Leek Pie

A baked pie of leeks, potatoes, herbs, and a milk‑egg‑flour batter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Leek and potato work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 30 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Leek Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dice the potatoes and leeks.

  2. Parboil them in 1 pint of water, adding the herbs, butter, and seasoning.

  3. Place the vegetables in a pie dish.

Make the batter and bake

  1. Make a batter with the milk, eggs, and flour.

  2. Pour the batter over the vegetables.

  3. Mix everything well.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 hours.

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. Leek + potatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30 recipes

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

  2. Milk + wheattop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,418 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  3. Leek + nutmegtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together152 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Potato + wheattop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and help it set into a custard-like pie during baking.
Fine wheat flour
Thickens the milk and eggs into a batter that holds the vegetables together.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the batter, adding moisture and richness.
Potatoes
Provide starchy body and soft texture in the finished pie.
Leeks
Add mild onion-like sweetness and aroma to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 1 to 2 hours. Eggs must set fully to hold the batter together. Too little heat or time leaves a runny centre, while too much heat can make the eggs curdle and turn rubbery.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, nutmeg, milk, pepper, wheat, flour, egg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Leekthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, nutmeg, milk, pepper, wheat, flour, egg. 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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