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Lentil Soup

A simple lentil soup made by simmering lentils, mashing them, and adding salt and thin cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,399 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lentils

  1. Simmer lentils in water until tender.

  2. For a lighter soup, parboil lentils for 30 minutes, then drain and cook in fresh boiling water.

  3. Mash lentils through a colander to remove skins.

Finish the soup

  1. Add salt and thin cream.

  2. If too thick, add boiling milk or water to reach desired consistency.

  3. Reheat to boiling and serve.

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. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  2. Lentils + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Lentils + creamtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Form the body of the soup and, once mashed, give it a thick, smooth texture.
Thin cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the soup a softer, smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Mash lentils through a colander to remove skins. Lentil skins stay tough and grainy when cooked, so pressing the softened lentils through a colander separates them out and gives a smooth texture.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk. 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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