Skip to main content
Main

Lentil Rolls

A stew of lentils, rice, ham, and chicken rolled in cabbage leaves and simmered with stock, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Lentil Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the lentils and rice according to package instructions and mix them together.

  2. Combine the ham, chicken, coriander seed, salt, and pepper in a bowl, then mix in the rice and lentils.

  3. Scald the vine or cabbage leaves and shake them dry.

Roll and stew

  1. Place 2 tablespoons of the mixture in each leaf, roll loosely, and fold in the ends.

  2. Tie each roll with kitchen twine and place them in the bottom of a large saucepan.

  3. Cover the rolls with stock, add the bay leaf, sliced onion, and mace, then cover and stew slowly for 45 minutes.

  4. Carefully remove the rolls with a spatula, discard the twine, and arrange them on a heated dish.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then add the flour and mix until smooth.

  2. Gradually stir in the stock from the rolls until thick and smooth, then season with salt and pepper.

  3. Remove from heat, stir in the beaten egg yolk and tarragon vinegar, then pour over the rolls and serve.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  3. Lentils + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together273 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Coriander + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,949 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  5. Rice + coriandertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,854 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the bulk and body of the filling, holding the rolls together as they cook.
Rice
Absorbs moisture and adds softness, giving the filling a tender, cohesive texture.
Ham
Adds savoury, salty flavour and depth to the filling.
Chicken
Adds savoury meat flavour and protein-rich texture to the filling.
Butter
Provides fat and richness to the sauce and helps the flour form a smooth roux.
Egg yolk
Thickens the sauce and adds richness and a silky texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk into the sauce. Adding egg yolk to hot liquid can scramble it. Removing the pan from the heat first and stirring steadily lets the yolk thicken the sauce smoothly instead of curdling.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, rice, ham, chicken, coriander, pepper, onion):

  1. Okrafits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, rice, ham, chicken, coriander, pepper, onion. 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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesRice FrittersRice Fritters84 recipes