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 Puffs
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Boil the lentils in enough water to cover them for 2 hours until tender.
Beat the lentils.
Return them to the fire with the bread crumbs, beaten eggs (reserve some for brushing), herbs, salt, and pepper. Stir quickly for about a minute.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Make and fill the pastry
Make a puff pastry with the flour and butter, rolling it out thin.
Cut the pastry into rounds and place a spoonful of the lentil mixture in the center of each round.
Fold the pastry over the filling, seal the edges, and brush with the reserved egg.
Bake
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until the pastry is browned.
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.
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Lentils + flourtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together255 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,221 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- French lentils
- Provide the bulk of the filling, which becomes soft and cohesive once cooked and beaten.
- Eggs
- Bind the lentil filling and, brushed on top, promote browning of the pastry.
- Bread crumbs
- Absorb moisture and help the beaten lentils hold together as a filling.
- Butter
- Adds fat that separates the pastry into flaky layers and gives richness.
- Flour
- Forms the pastry dough that encloses the filling and sets as it bakes.
The step that matters
Stir the lentil mixture quickly after adding the eggs. Eggs set when heated, so stirring only briefly for about a minute keeps the filling from overcooking and turning dry or rubbery before it is wrapped and baked.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, butter, egg, bread, flour, pepper):
- Shallotfits better
- Spinachfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, butter, egg, bread, flour, 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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