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Lentil Rolls

Lentil rolls are made from cooked lentils, eggs, breadcrumbs, herbs, and butter, then fried and served with vegetarian gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Thyme and marjoram match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,225 recipes. Both carry terpineol, which smells pine, woody. The science ↓

Lentil Rolls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the lentils for 10 minutes and wash them thoroughly.

  2. Put the lentils in a saucepan with enough water to cover them and cook until tender, about 20 minutes.

  3. Drain the lentils, then mix in the butter, herbs, salt, one egg, and half of the bread crumbs.

Shape and fry

  1. Once the mixture is cool, form it into rolls, dip in the remaining egg and bread crumbs, and fry in hot oil until golden brown.

  2. Drain the rolls and serve with vegetarian gravy.

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. Thyme + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: terpineol (pine, woody).

  2. Parsley + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Parsley + marjoramtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,979 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  5. Marjoram + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,609 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Lentils
Form the bulk of the filling and set firm when cooked and cooled, holding the rolls together.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and form a coating that helps the rolls brown when fried.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture in the filling and form a crisp, golden outer coating.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before shaping. Warm filling is soft and sticky, so rolls can slump or break apart. Letting it cool lets the egg and crumbs firm up the mixture so it holds its shape in hot oil.

Swap the lentils

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, bread, parsley, butter, thyme, marjoram, pepper):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Walnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits about as well
  4. Lentilsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, bread, parsley, butter, thyme, marjoram, 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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