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Lentil Soup

A clear soup made with lentils, flour, butter, and meat broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lentils and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 255 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a clear stock with the soup bone.

  2. Boil the lentils in clear water until tender, then drain.

Make the soup

  1. Brown the flour and butter in a skillet.

  2. Add the lentils to the skillet and cook for a while.

  3. Pour in the meat broth and bring to a boil.

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. Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + meattop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,594 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lentils + meattop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together46 recipes

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

  5. Lentils + buttertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the main body and bulk of the soup as they soften during cooking.
Flour
Browns with the butter to thicken the soup and add a toasted, nutty flavor.
Butter
Carries the flour's browning and adds richness and fat to the soup.
Meat broth
Forms the liquid base that gives the soup its savory meat flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the flour and butter. Cook the flour and butter until evenly browned but not burnt. Browning develops nutty flavor, while scorched flour turns bitter and dark, and it also helps the flour thicken the soup smoothly when liquid is added.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, meat):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, meat. 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 soup recipes

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