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Soup, Puree of Lentils

A pureed lentil soup made with lentils, broth, vegetables, and optional ham or salt pork, finished with butter and fried bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Soup, Puree of Lentils

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lentils

  1. Cook the lentils in 1 quart of broth and 1 quart of water until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Remove the carrots, onions, and celery.

Strain and thin

  1. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve.

  2. If the soup is too thick, add more broth as needed.

  3. Return the soup to the saucepan.

Simmer and serve

  1. Stir until it boils, reduce the heat, and let it simmer for 25 minutes.

  2. Before serving, skim the surface.

  3. Add a piece of butter.

  4. Serve with small fried bread crumbs.

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 + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Break down into the thick body of the puree, giving the soup its texture.
Broth
Supplies the cooking liquid and moisture, and sets the soup's thickness when adjusted.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel at the end.

The step that matters

Thinning the puree with broth. Lentils keep absorbing liquid and thickening as the puree sits and simmers. Adding broth in small amounts and checking the consistency keeps the soup smooth rather than pasty.

Swap the lentils

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

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Lentilsthe original
  3. Peasfits about as well
  4. Lima beansfits about as well

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