Why it works: Lentils and butter work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 486 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Saricots and Lentils
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash the haricots or lentils thoroughly.
In a black iron pot, combine the haricots and cold water.
Add the butter or fat.
Cook
Boil gently for three hours or until tender.
If the water is nearly absorbed, draw off the remainder.
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.
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Lentils + buttertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together486 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Haricots or lentils
- Form the main body of the dish, becoming soft and tender as they cook.
- Butter or fat
- Adds richness and a smoother, more rounded mouthfeel to the cooked beans.
The step that matters
Boil gently for three hours or until tender. Vigorous boiling can break the beans apart and leave them mushy, while gentle heat cooks them evenly through and keeps them whole.
“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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