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Vegetarian Cookery

A thick lentil soup simmered with stock, onions, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894 · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,890 recipes mention both. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Vegetarian Cookery

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Sieve the lentils, then add a crust of stale bread.

  2. Let the whole boil, and skim off any dark film that rises to the surface.

  3. Boil for about four hours, or until the lentils are thoroughly soft.

Strain and finish

  1. Strain the soup through a wire sieve.

  2. Rub the whole contents through the wire sieve with the soup.

  3. Boil the soup up again.

  4. If made from green lentils, color the soup green with spinach extract; if made from red lentils, color it with a few drops of Parisian essence.

  5. While warming, stir constantly to prevent the lentil powder from settling and burning.

Serve

  1. Serve by stirring the contents of the soup-tureen with the soup-ladle before each help.

By Payne, A. G. (Arthur Gay), 1840-1894. 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. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Cinnamon + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,890 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  5. Sherry + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils (in the method)
Break down during long boiling to thicken the soup and give it body.
Stock
Forms the liquid base that carries the flavour of the soup.
Onions
Soften during cooking, adding sweetness and aroma to the soup.
Milk
Adds richness and a creamy mouthfeel to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring constantly while warming. The lentil powder is heavy and settles to the bottom of the pan, where it can scorch. Constant stirring keeps the particles suspended and spreads heat evenly, so the soup stays smooth and does not taste burnt.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, sherry, egg, cinnamon, pepper):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Sweet potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, sherry, egg, cinnamon, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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