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Lentil Soup

A simple soup made with red lentils, butter, onion, celery, and water or stock, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lentils

  1. Wash the lentils well.

  2. Soak them overnight.

  3. Strain the lentils and melt the butter in a saucepan.

Cook the soup

  1. Add the lentils, onion, and celery to the saucepan.

  2. Pour in the water or stock and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Simmer until the lentils are tender.

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. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  2. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + peppertop 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

Red lentils
Form the body of the soup as they soften and break down during simmering.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor from the pan into the soup.
Onion
Builds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the butter.
Celery
Adds aromatic flavor and a little vegetable texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer until the lentils are tender. Lentils need enough time in liquid for their starch to gelatinize and their cell walls to soften. Stopping early leaves them firm and grainy, while gentle simmering keeps them intact rather than turning mushy.

Swap the lentils

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, celery, pepper. 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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