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Cooking the Lentils

A hearty lentil stew cooked with salt pork, bacon, carrots, onion, and herbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 21,601 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Cooking the Lentils

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rinse the lentils.

  2. Place the lentils in a casserole with 1 quart of water and salt to taste, and bring to a boil.

  3. Skim off any scum that forms, then reduce heat to a low simmer.

Brown the vegetables

  1. Cook half of the chopped salt pork, carrots, and onion in a frying pan until lightly browned. Drain excess fat.

  2. Add the cooked vegetables to the casserole with the lentils.

Simmer and finish

  1. Add the remaining salt pork, bacon, and kitchen bouquet to the casserole.

  2. Cover and simmer for about 1.5 hours until the vegetables are tender.

  3. After 45 minutes, remove the bacon and let it cool slightly before slicing.

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. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pork + carrottop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,772 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 (in the method)
Form the body of the stew as they soften and thicken the broth.
Salt pork
Adds fat and savory flavor that carries through the stew as it renders.
Bacon
Contributes smoky, salty depth to the broth while it simmers.
Onion
Browning softens and sweetens, building a flavor base for the stew.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and become tender, thickening the stew slightly.

The step that matters

Skimming the scum before simmering. Foam that rises as the lentils come to a boil contains impurities that can cloud the broth and taste bitter. Skimming it off keeps the stew clear and clean-flavored.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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