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Lentil Soup

A hearty soup made from split lentils, celery, parsley, onion, mace, peppercorns, and butter, finished with milk and optional cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup base

  1. Wash the lentils thoroughly and place them in a saucepan with 3 pints of cold water.

  2. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil and skim off any foam.

  3. Add the celery, parsley, onion, mace, and peppercorns.

  4. Simmer slowly for 1½ hours.

Thicken and strain

  1. In another saucepan, heat the butter until hot but not browned.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the milk and boil for 3-4 minutes.

  4. Pass the soup through a wire sieve.

  5. Rub as much pulp through the sieve as possible.

  6. Add the pulp to the milk along with the salt.

  7. Reheat the mixture.

Serve

  1. Serve the soup.

  2. If using cream, place it in the tureen.

  3. Pour the soup over the cream.

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 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 + flourtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together255 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Lentils + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together316 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Split lentils
Break down during simmering to give the soup its body and thickness.
Butter
Forms the fat base for the roux that helps thicken the soup.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth, creamy base.
Milk
Adds richness and a softer, creamier texture to the soup.
Onion
Contributes savoury sweetness and aroma to the soup base.

The step that matters

Heat the butter until hot but not browned. Browning the butter gives a nutty, darker colour and flavour, and scorching it can make the roux taste bitter and burnt, so keep it pale for a clean flavour.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, celery, parsley, onion, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, celery, parsley, onion, butter, flour, milk. 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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