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Leek Soup

A creamy soup made with leeks, potatoes, milk, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Leek Soup

Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Leek Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leeks

  1. Trim the coarse green ends from the leeks.

  2. Cut the leeks lengthwise to remove grit.

  3. Wash the leeks thoroughly to ensure no grit remains.

  4. Cut the leeks into short pieces.

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Peel the potatoes.

  2. Wash the potatoes.

  3. Chop the potatoes.

Make the soup

  1. Cook the leeks and potatoes in 2 pints of water until tender.

  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve back into the saucepan.

  3. Add the butter, milk, and seasoning.

  4. Bring the soup to a boil.

  5. Stir in the lemon juice.

  6. Serve with toast or rusks.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Leek + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together162 recipes

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

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Leeks
Provide the main flavour and body of the soup as they soften during cooking.
Potatoes
Break down during cooking and thicken the soup, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished soup.
Milk
Adds creaminess and softens the flavour of the soup.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the soup.

The step that matters

Washing the leeks thoroughly. Grit hides between the layers of leek and is not removed by cooking, so it ends up gritty in the soup. Cutting lengthwise before washing exposes the layers so the grit can be rinsed away.

Swap the leek

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, potato, pepper, lemon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, potato, pepper, lemon. 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.

More leek soup recipes

Scotch 9Chicken 4Potato 4Welsh 3 See all 47 →

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