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White Lentil Soup

A hearty soup made from split lentils, celery, onion, mace, peppercorns, and finished with butter, flour, milk, cream, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lentils and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 255 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

White Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the lentil base

  1. Wash the lentils well in several waters, then boil them in the cold water.

  2. Skim the soup as it comes to a boil, then add the celery, mace, parsley, onion, peppercorns, and seasoning.

  3. Simmer slowly for 1.5 hours.

  4. Pass the soup through a fine sieve.

Finish the soup

  1. In a saucepan, rub together the butter and flour over low heat with a wooden spoon.

  2. Gradually add the milk and the sieved soup, stirring until boiling.

  3. Just before serving, add the cream.

  4. Serve with fried bread slices.

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. Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 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

Split lentils
Break down during simmering to thicken and give the soup its body.
Butter and flour
Cooked together to form a roux that thickens the milk and soup smoothly.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, and thins the roux into a smooth liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Adding the milk and sieved soup to the roux. Adding liquid gradually while stirring keeps the flour dispersed, preventing lumps and giving a smooth, evenly thickened soup.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, celery, onion, butter, flour, milk, cream):

  1. Turmericfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, celery, onion, butter, flour, milk, cream. 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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