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Lentil Fritters

A fried patty made from cooked lentils, onion, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lentils and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 255 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Lentil Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil lentils until soft but not mushy, then drain.

  2. Mince the onion and fry it in butter until browned.

  3. In a bowl, combine lentils, fried onion, pepper, and salt; mix well.

Form and fry

  1. Form the mixture into small cakes and dredge with flour.

  2. If lentils are too soft, mix in breadcrumbs.

  3. Fry the cakes in hot olive oil until golden brown.

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. Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Lentils + peppertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together812 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Provide the bulk and structure that hold the cakes together.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savory aroma when browned in butter.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor for frying the onion until browned.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help bind the mixture if lentils are too soft.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes in hot olive oil until golden brown. Frying in hot oil browns the surface through the Maillard reaction and seals it, so the cakes turn crisp outside while staying tender inside.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Kalefits better
  2. Shallotfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, butter, pepper, flour. 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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