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Puree of Lentils

A lentil puree made with ham, partridge, vegetables, stock, consommé, and served with fried bread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and leek match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,046 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Puree of Lentils

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lentils

  1. Pick and wash the lentils.

  2. Place lentils in a soup pot with ham, partridge, carrot, turnip, onion, leeks, and celery tied together.

  3. Add stock and boil slowly for 3 hours.

  4. Remove the roots, partridge, and ham.

Finish the puree

  1. Rub the lentils through a tammy and add consommé.

  2. Boil again, then clarify by skimming off scum and grease.

Serve

  1. Serve in a tureen with diced bread fried in butter.

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. Turnip + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Lentils + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  4. Lentils + leektop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Form the main body of the puree, thickening as they cook and break down.
Stock
Provides the liquid that cooks the lentils and carries the flavour of the vegetables.
Consomme
Adds clear, savoury body and extra flavour to the finished puree.
Butter
Browns the bread cubes, adding rich flavour and a crisp texture.
Bread
Adds crisp contrast to the soft puree.

The step that matters

Skimming off scum and grease while boiling again. Scum and fat rise to the surface as the liquid reboils. Skimming them off keeps the puree clear, clean-tasting and free of greasy film.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, ham, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, bread):

  1. Parsnipfits better
  2. Lettucefits better
  3. Beetrootfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, ham, carrot, turnip, leek, celery, bread. 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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