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Louisiana Lentils

A lentil dish cooked with butter, onion, red peppers, tomatoes, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 with fresh water.

  4. Cook slowly for 30 minutes.

  5. Bring to a boil.

  6. Drain.

  7. Cover with hot water.

  8. Simmer until tender.

Make the lentil dish

  1. In a baking dish, melt the butter or drippings.

  2. Add the chopped onion and red peppers.

  3. Stir until browned.

  4. Stir in the tomatoes.

  5. Season with salt and pepper.

  6. Drain the lentils.

  7. Add them to the mixture.

  8. Cook 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 and become tender and creamy when simmered.
Butter or drippings
Add fat that carries flavor and helps the onion and peppers brown.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns.
Red peppers
Contribute sweetness, color and aroma as they soften in the fat.
Tomatoes
Add acidity, moisture and body that thickens the mixture as it cooks.

The step that matters

Simmer until tender. Lentils must be fully softened before they are combined with the tomato mixture. Dried lentils left firm will stay chalky and will not finish cooking in the final uncovered step.

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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