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Stewed Lentils and Bacon

A hearty stew of lentils, barley water, onion, bouquet garni, and bacon, seasoned with pepper, sea salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Stewed Lentils and Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the lentils in cold water for 3 hours.

  2. Drain and place the lentils in a saucepan with plenty of cold water. Boil for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the lentils over a colander and return them to the saucepan.

Cook

  1. Cover the lentils with barley-water.

  2. Add the onion with cloves and the bouquet garni.

  3. Scrape and trim the bacon or salt pork, blanching if desired, then add to the saucepan.

  4. Simmer until the lentils are thoroughly cooked.

Season and serve

  1. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and chopped parsley.

  2. Serve the lentils on a dish with the bacon on top.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Lentils + barleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together57 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Clove + parsleytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 dish and soften into a tender, thick texture when simmered.
Bacon or salt pork
Adds fat and salty, savoury flavour that seasons the lentils as they simmer.
Barley-water
Provides the cooking liquid, adding body and a mild starchy flavour to the lentils.

The step that matters

Simmer until the lentils are thoroughly cooked. Lentils must be fully tender before serving, since undercooked lentils stay firm and chalky. Gentle simmering softens the starches evenly without breaking the lentils apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, barley, clove, pork, pepper, parsley):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Carrotfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, barley, clove, pork, pepper, parsley. 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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