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Potage FtRUSQUE. [Lentil Soup.]

A lentil soup made with Egyptian lentils, water, salt, meat gravy, milk or cream, and served with croutons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Meat and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,703 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓

Potage FtRUSQUE. [Lentil Soup.]

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the lentils

  1. Sort the lentils and place them in a saucepan with cold water and salt.

  2. Boil for 4 hours.

Finish and serve

  1. Pass the thick puree through a sieve back into the saucepan.

  2. Add meat gravy and a little milk or cream.

  3. Serve with croutons.

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. Meat + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,703 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  2. Lentils + meattop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Lentils + milktop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Break down during long boiling, releasing starch that thickens the soup into a body.
Meat gravy
Adds savory depth and a meaty flavor to the soup.
Milk or cream
Adds richness and softens the flavor, giving a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boil for 4 hours. Lentils need a long, sustained simmer to soften fully and break down. This releases their starch, which thickens the soup. If the boil is cut short, the lentils stay firm and the puree turns grainy and thin.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, milk):

  1. Cocoafits better
  2. Peanutfits better
  3. Pecansfits better
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, milk. 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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