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Louisiana Lentils

A lentil stew with butter, onions, red peppers, and tomatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Louisiana Lentils

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lentils

  1. Soak the lentils for about 8 hours.

  2. Drain the lentils.

  3. Cover the lentils with fresh water.

  4. Cook the lentils slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. Bring the lentils to a boil.

  6. Drain the lentils again.

  7. Cover the lentils with hot water.

  8. Simmer the lentils until tender.

Make the lentil dish

  1. Melt the butter or drippings in a baking dish.

  2. Add the chopped onion and red peppers to the dish.

  3. Stir the mixture until the onions and peppers are browned.

  4. Add the tomatoes to the dish.

  5. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  6. Drain the lentils.

  7. Add the drained lentils to the mixture.

  8. Cook the mixture uncovered for 30 minutes.

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. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  2. Lentils + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together463 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  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

Lentils
Form the bulk of the dish, becoming tender through soaking and simmering.
Butter or drippings
Adds fat for frying the vegetables and carries flavor into the dish.
Onion
Browns to add sweetness and savory depth to the base.
Red peppers
Soften and brown with the onion, adding sweetness and aroma.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that combine with the lentils during the final cook.

The step that matters

Stir the onions and peppers until browned. Browning the onion and peppers in fat develops sweet, savory flavors through the Maillard reaction and caramelization. Stopping too early leaves the base flat-tasting.

Swap the lentils

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chickpeafits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

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