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Cheese and Lentil Savoury

A baked dish of cheese, lentils, onions, breadcrumbs, and margarine, seasoned with parsley, pepper, and salt, served with bean gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Cheese and Lentil Savoury

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and pick over the lentils.

  2. Peel and chop the onions.

  3. Cook the onions in a little water with the lentils, stirring frequently.

Make the mixture

  1. Grate the cheese and combine it with the partially cooked lentils and onions in a bowl.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, pepper, salt, and about 1 tablespoon of finely chopped parsley.

  3. Moisten with bean gravy and mix to a soft paste.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a greased tin or pie-dish.

Bake and serve

  1. Dot small pieces of margarine over the top and bake in a hot oven (400°F/200°C) until set and golden brown.

  2. Serve hot with bean gravy.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Lentils + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cheese + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Onion + lentilstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the bulk and a firm, hearty texture that holds the bake together.
Cheese
Adds richness and flavour, and helps the mixture set as it bakes.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and give the paste body so it holds its shape.
Onions
Add sweetness and aroma as they soften during cooking.
Margarine
Adds fat that promotes browning on the surface in the oven.

The step that matters

Moisten to a soft paste. Too little bean gravy leaves the mixture dry and crumbly, while too much makes it wet and slow to set. The paste should be soft but still hold together so it bakes into a firm, sliceable bake.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, bread, onion, parsley, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Chickpeafits about as well
  3. Lentilsthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, bread, onion, parsley, pepper. 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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