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Lentil Soup

A hearty soup made with lentils, water, onions, carrots, parsley, bacon bones, pepper, and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large pot, combine lentils, water, sliced onions, scraped carrots, parsley, and bacon bones.

  2. Bring to a brisk simmer and cook until the liquid is reduced by half, about 1 hour.

  3. Strain the soup through a sieve to remove solids.

  4. Serve hot with fried bread squares.

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

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lentils + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. 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
Provide the main body and thickness as they break down during simmering.
Onions
Add sweetness and savory depth as they soften in the liquid.
Bacon bones
Release smoky, salty flavor into the broth during long simmering.

The step that matters

Simmering until reduced by half. A brisk simmer reduces the liquid steadily and concentrates flavor. Too vigorous a boil can cloud the broth and break lentils unevenly, while too gentle a heat extends cooking and leaves the soup thin.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, carrot, 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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