Name: Soup Made with Lentils or Split Peas
Ingredients: 1 cup lentils or split peas; 2 cups meat (beef or chicken); 2 cups mixed vegetables (carrots, celery, onion); 1 tablespoon sago, farina, barley, or rice (optional); coarse sea salt to taste; black pepper to taste

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Soup Made with Lentils or Split Peas

Ingredients

1 cup lentils or split peas
2 cups meat (beef or chicken)
2 cups mixed vegetables (carrots, celery, onion)
1 tablespoon sago, farina, barley, or rice (optional)
coarse sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare and simmer

Rinse the lentils or split peas under cold water.
In a pot, combine lentils or split peas, meat, and vegetables with enough water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30-40 minutes.

Finish

If desired, thicken the soup by adding sago, farina, barley, or rice.
Season with coarse sea salt and black pepper to taste.

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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lentils + barleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together57 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Lentils + carrottop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together505 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 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

Lentils or split peas: Break down during simmering to give the soup body and a hearty texture.
Meat: Adds savory flavor and richness to the broth as it cooks.
Sago, farina, barley, or rice: Starch that thickens the soup as it cooks in the broth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, meat, carrot, celery, barley, pepper):

Turnipfits better
Leekfits better
Parsnipfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, meat, carrot, celery, barley, 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.