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Creah of Lentils

A thick lentil puree served over buttered toast.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Creah of Lentils

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the lentils in cold water for several hours.

  2. In a large pot, combine soaked lentils, water, carrot, onion, whole peppers, parsley, and salt.

Cook and strain

  1. Cook over low heat for 1 hour.

  2. Rub the mixture through a sieve.

Serve

  1. Place buttered toast in a serving bowl and pour the lentil puree over it.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lentils + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Lentils + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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
Provide the main body and thickening starch that gives the puree its texture.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and body to the puree.
Onion
Adds savory depth and aroma as it softens during cooking.
Buttered toast
Absorbs the puree and adds a soft, rich fat base for serving.

The step that matters

Rub the mixture through a sieve. Pressing the cooked solids through a sieve breaks them down and removes fibrous skins, which gives a smooth puree. Skipping or rushing this step leaves the texture gritty and uneven.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, carrot, pepper, parsley):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Turnipfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, carrot, pepper, parsley. 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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