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Lentil Soup

A simple soup made with red lentils, celery, onion, butter, and water, 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

  1. Wash the lentils and soak them in cold water for several hours if possible.

  2. Melt the butter or dripping in a saucepan.

Make the soup

  1. Add the lentils and sliced celery and onion to the saucepan and stir over gentle heat for a few minutes.

  2. Add the cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. Boil for about an hour, then rub the mixture through a fine sieve.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, reheat, and serve with fried bread.

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. Celery + oniontop 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
Break down during boiling to thicken the soup into a smooth body.
Butter or dripping
Fat that softens the vegetables and carries flavour into the soup.
Celery
Adds aromatic, savoury flavour to the soup base.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury depth as it cooks gently in the fat.

The step that matters

Boil for about an hour, then rub the mixture through a fine sieve. Lentils must cook long enough to soften fully so they break down easily. Pressing them through a fine sieve removes the skins and fibres, giving a smooth texture.

Swap the lentils

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

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

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