Name: Puree of Lentils, Hunters' Style
Ingredients: lentils; bacon; quails or partridges; small fried bread crumbs

Why it works: Lentils and quail work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5 recipes. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

Puree of Lentils, Hunters' Style

Ingredients

lentils
bacon
quails or partridges
small fried bread crumbs

Directions

Prepare the soup as in the previous recipe, adding a piece of bacon while cooking.
Once done, remove the bacon and vegetables, and strain the soup through a fine sieve.
Make a game broth using quails or partridges.
Dilute the puree with this broth and let it simmer for 30 minutes.
Skim the surface, add the bird breasts cut into small pieces, and 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.

Lentils + quailtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Lentils + breadtop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together77 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Quail + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together151 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).