Why it works: Lentils and butter work together. They rank in the top 27% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 486 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Boiled Lentils
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and wash the lentils.
Boil them for a few minutes, then drain in a colander.
Serve
Lay the lentils thickly on buttered toast.
Melt a little butter in the oven and pour it over the lentils.
Serve very hot.
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 + buttertop 27% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together486 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Lentils
- Provide the main body and hearty, soft texture of the dish.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, coating the lentils and toast with fat.
- Toast
- Gives a firm base that soaks up melted butter and holds the lentils.
The step that matters
Boil them for a few minutes. Lentils must cook through to become tender and digestible. Too short a boil leaves them firm and chalky inside, while overboiling turns them mushy and falls apart.
“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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