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Lentil Fritters

Lentil fritters are small, pan‑fried patties made from cooked lentils, breadcrumbs, onion, egg, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentil Fritters

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, combine cooked lentils, bread crumbs, braised onion, egg, celery salt, and pepper, and mix well until fully combined.

  2. Form the mixture into walnut-sized pieces.

Fry

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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

Cooked lentils
Provide the main body and bulk of the fritter.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture hold its shape.
Egg
Binds the mixture together so the fritters hold their form.
Braised onion
Adds savory flavor and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Forming and frying in hot oil. If the oil is not hot enough, the fritters absorb excess oil and turn greasy rather than browning. Hot oil sets the outside quickly, which helps the pieces hold their shape and develop a golden crust.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, onion, egg, celery, pepper):

  1. Beansfits about as well
  2. Lentilsthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Walnutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, onion, egg, celery, 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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