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Cock-a-leekie Soup

A Scottish soup of chicken, leeks, rice, turnip, carrot, onion, cloves, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek 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 ↓

Cock-a-leekie Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the fowl and vegetables

  1. Truss the fowl and place it in a large pot with enough water to cover it.

  2. Add a little salt and bring to a boil, skimming off any scum.

  3. Add the cleaned turnip, carrot, and onion (peeled and studded with cloves).

  4. Once the fowl is tender, remove it from the pot.

Make the soup

  1. Wash the leeks, trim the roots and outer leaves, and cut them into 1‑inch lengths.

  2. Strain the broth, which should measure about 3 pints, into another pot.

  3. Add the leeks and the washed rice, then boil for about 30 minutes.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Cut the fowl in half, chop one half into small pieces, and add to the soup.

  6. Reserve the other half for another use.

  7. Before serving, stir in the chopped parsley.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Turnip + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Turnip + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Fowl
Gives meat and rich flavour to the broth as it simmers.
Leeks
Add a mild onion-like sweetness and soften into the soup during cooking.
Rice
Thickens the soup slightly as its starch releases during the boil.
Onion
Adds savoury depth and aroma to the broth as it cooks.
Carrot
Adds subtle sweetness and colour to the broth.
Turnip
Adds mild earthy flavour and body to the broth.

The step that matters

Skimming the broth as it comes to a boil. Scum is coagulated protein and impurities that rise to the surface. Removing it keeps the broth clear and clean-tasting rather than cloudy or greasy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turnip, clove, rice, carrot, leek, pepper, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Lettucefits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turnip, clove, rice, carrot, leek, pepper, parsley. 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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