Why it works: Lentils and spinach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 132 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Poitrine De Veau Au Coulis De Lentilles Ou Coulis De Pois
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the veal
Cut the breast of veal into finger-sized pieces.
Blanch the veal pieces in boiling water.
Make the broth and coulis
Stew the veal with good stock, bacon, sweet herbs, garlic, and salt.
In a separate pot, stew the lentils or peas in water or stock until well done.
Strain the lentils or peas through a sieve.
If using peas, add boiled, squeezed, and pounded spinach to the puree for color.
Combine the puree with the veal broth.
Add the meat and bacon to the mixture.
Serve
Serve in a tureen.
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.
-
Lentils + spinachtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together132 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Garlic + spinachtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,435 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Garlic + lentilstop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together633 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Clove + lentilstop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together210 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
-
Clove + spinachtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together550 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 or dry peas
- Break down into a smooth puree that thickens the coulis and gives it body.
- Streaked bacon
- Adds fat and savoury flavour to the stock that the veal cooks in.
- Veal breast
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Spinach
- Adds green colour to the pea puree when peas are used.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, garlic, lentils, spinach):
- Cuminfits better
- Capersfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against veal, garlic, lentils, spinach. 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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