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Baked Lentils

A baked lentil dish with salt pork, onion, garlic or pepper, simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lentils and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 210 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Baked Lentils

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Soak and simmer

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

  2. Drain the lentils and place them in a pot with 2 quarts of cold water, then heat slowly.

  3. As the water boils, the lentils will rise to the top.

  4. Remove them with a skimmer and place in a deep baking dish with the pork and onion in the center.

Assemble and bake

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

  2. Cook slowly in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) for 4 to 5 hours, adding a little water as needed.

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,901 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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 set its soft, tender body as they cook.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory depth as it renders into the lentils during baking.
Onion
Adds aroma and mild sweetness as it softens and browns slowly in the oven.

The step that matters

Long, slow baking with added water. Gentle, moderate heat for several hours lets the lentils soften and absorb liquid without bursting or scorching. Adding water as needed keeps the dish moist so the lentils do not dry out or stick to the dish.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Cuminfits better
  3. Turmericfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, pork, onion. 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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