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Lentils, Boiled

A simple boiled lentil dish seasoned with butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Lentils, Boiled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lentils

  1. Soak the lentils overnight in plenty of water.

  2. Drain the lentils and add them to a quart of boiling water.

  3. Boil for 30 minutes or until tender but not broken.

  4. Drain the lentils and return them to the saucepan.

  5. Add butter, pepper, salt, and vinegar, then heat until hot.

Make the superior sauce

  1. For the superior method, melt butter in a clean saucepan.

  2. Fry the chopped onion in the melted butter until soft.

  3. Stir in flour to make a smooth paste.

  4. Add boiling stock to create a thick sauce, then mix in the boiled lentils.

  5. Simmer for 10 to 15 minutes and serve in a tureen.

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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lentils + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Green lentils
Form the main body of the dish, becoming tender while holding their shape when boiled.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the finished lentils.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a smooth sauce that coats the lentils.
Onion
Softens while frying to add sweetness and savory aroma to the sauce.
Vinegar
Adds a sharp acidity that brightens the mild flavor of the lentils.

The step that matters

Boil for 30 minutes or until tender but not broken. Lentils must cook long enough to soften fully, but overcooking breaks their skins and turns them mushy. Checking for tenderness while keeping the shape keeps the texture right.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, pepper, vinegar, onion, flour):

  1. Sesamefits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, pepper, vinegar, onion, flour. 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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