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Lentil Soup

A hearty soup made with lentils, onion, sugar, herbs, celery, bacon rinds, pepper, optional cabbage and carrot, simmered and strained.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Lentil Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash the lentils thoroughly and place them in a stewing jar.

  2. Add the onion, sugar, herbs, celery, bacon rinds, pepper, cabbage, carrot, and water.

Cook and strain

  1. Simmer the mixture until the lentils are tender.

  2. Rub the soup through a fine sieve to remove solids.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the reserved liquid and fresh mint, then reheat.

  2. Serve with tiny squares of fried crisp bread.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Pepper + cabbagetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 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

Red or yellow lentils
Break down during simmering to thicken the soup and give it body.
Onion
Adds savoury sweetness and aroma as it softens in the broth.
Bacon rinds
Release fat and savoury flavour into the water during simmering.
Carrot
Adds natural sweetness and colour to the soup base.
Fresh mint
Adds a bright, aromatic lift added near the end of cooking.

The step that matters

Rub the soup through a fine sieve. Pushing the cooked lentils and vegetables through a fine sieve breaks them into a smooth purée and removes fibrous solids. Skipping or rushing this leaves the soup gritty and uneven in texture.

Swap the cabbage

The recipe marks cabbage as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, onion, sugar, celery, pepper, carrot, ham):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Mustardfits better
  3. Parsnipfits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, onion, sugar, celery, pepper, carrot, ham. 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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