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Purée of Lentils, À LA Brétonne

A smooth lentil purée cooked with onion, carrots, butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lentils and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 505 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Purée of Lentils, À LA Brétonne

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare and cook

  1. Rinse the lentils under cold water.

  2. In a pot, combine lentils, water, onion, and carrots.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes.

Finish

  1. Drain excess water and mash the lentils until smooth.

  2. Stir in butter, and season with salt and pepper to taste.

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. Lentils + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together505 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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 purée and set its thick, hearty texture once cooked and mashed.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the purée a smoother mouthfeel and a rounder flavour.
Onion
Contributes savoury aromatic flavour that builds the base taste of the purée as it simmers.
Carrots
Add gentle sweetness and body, helping thicken and colour the purée.

The step that matters

Simmer until lentils are tender. Lentils must cook fully before mashing; undercooked lentils stay firm and grainy, so the purée will not become smooth. Simmering gently keeps them intact while they soften.

Swap the lentils

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, carrot, butter, 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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