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Lentils, Savoury

A hearty lentil stew cooked with butter, onion, parsley, and white sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentils, Savoury

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lentils

  1. Soak the lentils in tepid water for 3 hours, changing the water as it cools.

  2. Melt 1 ounce of butter in a stewpan.

  3. Lightly fry the onion.

  4. Add the drained lentils.

  5. Cover the lentils with warm water.

  6. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook and finish

  1. Cook gently for about 2 hours.

  2. Once the lentils are tender, remove the lid and allow the water to evaporate until the lentils are dry.

  3. Add the remaining butter, white sauce, and parsley.

  4. Season to taste.

  5. Toss over heat until thoroughly hot.

  6. Dish up and serve.

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

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

  2. Lentils + parsleytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together322 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Lentils + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,221 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  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

Lentils
Form the bulk of the stew and set its soft, tender texture as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the finished stew.
White sauce
Adds moisture and creaminess that binds the lentils together.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and sweetness when lightly fried in butter.

The step that matters

Allow the water to evaporate until the lentils are dry. Lentils absorb and hold water as they cook. Driving off the excess water leaves them dry enough to take up the white sauce and butter without turning soupy.

Swap the lentils

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, onion, parsley, sauce, 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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