Why it works: Leek and pepper work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 965 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Leek Soup
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the leeks
Cut the leeks into pieces about 1 inch long, using mostly the white parts.
Pour boiling water over the leeks and let them stand for 10 minutes; then discard the water.
Cook the soup
Place the leeks in a saucepan with the stock and boil for 4 to 5 hours, skimming occasionally.
When the leeks are soft and the soup has thickened, season with salt and pepper.
Serve
Pour the soup into a hot tureen containing slices of the roll that have been dried in the oven.
Serve very hot.
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.
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Leek + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together965 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
- Leeks
- Provide the main flavour and, when cooked soft, the body of the soup.
- Stock
- Forms the liquid base of the soup and carries the leek flavour.
- Roll
- Dried slices in the tureen soak up some soup, giving a bread-based texture.
The step that matters
Skimming during the long boil. Skimming removes foam and impurities that rise to the surface during simmering, keeping the soup clear and clean-tasting over the long cooking time.
“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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