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Lentil Stew

A hearty lentil stew with rice, potatoes, flour, and bread crusts, cooked slowly in the oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Stew

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a warm oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Wash and pick the lentils clean.

  2. Place lentils in a deep pie dish with 1 quart of water.

Cook the lentils

  1. Put in a warm oven and gradually increase the heat to 400°F (200°C) for about 2 hours.

  2. Add more boiling water as needed to prevent drying out.

  3. Once soft and pulped, stir in olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Finish the stew

  1. Add cold boiled rice, chopped potatoes, and sift in wholemeal flour.

  2. Incorporate crusts of stale bread dipped in milk or water.

  3. Stir everything together and boil for about 10 minutes.

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 + olivetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together727 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Olive + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,994 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Olive + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Egyptian lentils
Form the main body of the stew and break down into a thick pulp as they cook.
Cold boiled rice
Adds body and thickens the stew as its starch absorbs liquid.
Cold potatoes
Add starch that helps thicken the stew and gives it a softer, heartier texture.
Wholemeal flour
Thickens the stew by absorbing liquid and binding the ingredients together.
Stale bread crusts
Soak up liquid and add body, helping the stew thicken further.
Olive oil
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour and smoothing the texture.

The step that matters

Adding more boiling water during the long cook. Lentils absorb water as they simmer and can scorch or dry out in a hot oven. Adding boiling water keeps the mixture moist so the lentils soften evenly instead of sticking and burning.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Eggplantfits better
  3. Kalefits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, olive, pepper, rice, flour, bread. 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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