Skip to main content
Main

Lentil Loaf

A baked loaf made from stewed beans, lentils, peas, butter, bread crumbs, fried onions, eggs, peanut butter, salt, and summer savory.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beans and lentils match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 135 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Lentil Loaf

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Run the beans, lentils, and peas through a colander.

  2. Add the melted butter, fried onions, and beaten eggs.

  3. Rub the peanut butter to a cream in a little hot water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Finally, add the summer savory and bread crumbs, and mix well.

  5. Oil a loaf pan and pour the mixture into it.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

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. Beans + lentilstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together135 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Beans + peanuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together190 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Beans + peastop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together949 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Beans + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,242 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

Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set firm when baked.
Lentils
Provide the bulk and protein-rich body of the loaf.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help the loaf hold its shape.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a softer, moister texture.
Fried onions
Add savory flavour and moisture to the mixture.

The step that matters

Mixing in the peanut butter. Creaming peanut butter with hot water thins it so it blends evenly; lumps left unblended can create dense pockets in the loaf.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, lentils, peas, butter, bread, egg, peanut):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, lentils, peas, butter, bread, egg, peanut. 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.

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesGreen PeasGreen Peas229 recipesWhite BreadWhite Bread80 recipesBread OmeletteBread Omelette60 recipes