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Baked Lentils

A baked lentil dish with salt pork, garlic or onion, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Baked Lentils

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Soak and parboil

  1. Pick over and wash the lentils, then soak them in cold water overnight.

  2. In the morning, drain the lentils and place them in a stewpan with 2 quarts of cold water over medium heat.

  3. Once the water boils, skim the lentils from the top and transfer them to a deep baking dish with the pork and onion in the center.

Bake

  1. Mix the salt and pepper with 1 quart of boiling water and pour it over the lentils.

  2. Cover the dish and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 4 to 5 hours, adding water as needed to keep the lentils moist.

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. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Lentils + clovetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together210 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lentils + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pork + clovetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,515 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 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
Form the bulk of the dish, and their starch softens into a tender, thick texture during slow baking.
Mixed salt pork
Adds fat and savory depth that seasons the lentils as they bake.
Garlic or onion
Adds aromatic flavor that mellows and sweetens during the long, slow bake.

The step that matters

Keeping the lentils moist during the long bake. Lentils keep absorbing liquid over hours in the oven. If they dry out, they can scorch and turn firm or leathery, so adding water as needed keeps them tender.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, clove, pepper):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Black-eyed peafits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, clove, 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.

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