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Lentil Pie or Vegetarian Meat Pudding

A baked lentil pie made with lentils, onion, eggs, butter, breadcrumbs, parsley, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentil Pie or Vegetarian Meat Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the lentils

  1. Boil the lentils and onion in a small amount of water until soft.

  2. Strain off any water, then mash the lentils through a colander and remove any husks.

Assemble

  1. Mix all ingredients with the lentil pulp; break in the eggs without beating; season carefully.

  2. Press the mixture into a buttered pie dish or casserole.

Bake and serve

  1. Sprinkle with breadcrumbs and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1 hour.

  2. Serve hot.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Parsley + lentilstop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + lentilstop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 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
Provide the bulk and body of the pie, holding its shape when cooked and mashed.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and set during baking so the pie holds together when sliced.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb excess moisture and form a crisp, browned topping in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and greasing the dish keeps the pie from sticking.
Onion
Adds savoury flavour and mild sweetness as it softens during boiling.

The step that matters

Break in the eggs without beating. Beating incorporates air and changes how the eggs set; gently folding them in keeps the texture dense and sliceable once baked.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (parsley, butter, pepper, egg, onion):

  1. Chickpeafits about as well
  2. Black-eyed peafits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against parsley, butter, pepper, egg, 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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