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Lentil Puree

A smooth puree of red lentils, onion, celery, and butter, seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Puree

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the lentils well in cold water.

  2. Butter the inside of a saucepan with 1 ounce of butter.

  3. Add the lentils to the saucepan.

  4. Peel and slice the onion.

  5. Cut off the green tops of the celery, wash them, and add them along with the sliced onion to the saucepan.

  6. Cover the saucepan and heat for 5 minutes.

Cook and strain

  1. Add 2 quarts of cold water, move the saucepan to the side of the fire, and let it simmer for 1 hour.

  2. Pass the contents of the saucepan through a hair sieve into a basin using a wooden spoon.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the puree back into the saucepan, add pepper and salt to taste, and warm it on the fire.

  2. Serve the puree in a hot soup tureen or basin, accompanied by toasted or fried bread cut into dice.

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

Red lentils
Break down during simmering to thicken the liquid into a smooth puree.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and body to the puree as it cooks.
Celery
Contributes a savory, aromatic flavor to the simmered base.
Butter
Coats the saucepan and adds richness to the finished puree.

The step that matters

Passing the contents through a hair sieve. Lentils must be cooked until fully soft before straining, otherwise the puree stays grainy and fibrous. Pressing firmly with a wooden spoon forces the pulp through, leaving skins and fibres behind for a smooth texture.

Swap the lentils

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

  1. Black-eyed peafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Sesamefits about as well
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, celery, butter, 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.

More lentil puree recipes

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