Lentils is a legume with 231 known flavor compounds. The most distinctive molecule is resveratrol. It pairs most strongly with onion, sharing 209 flavor compounds. Lentils appears in 1,607 recipes, most commonly in indian cuisine.
Compounds ranked by rarity — the higher the score, the more distinctive to this ingredient.
Of the ~226 molecules that drive perceived food aroma (Dunkel et al. 2014), Lentils's inventory contains 37. Most of the other 194 compounds are below detection threshold.
+ 25 more — showing top 12 by class and threshold.
Generalist = appears in >25% of foods (Maillard / fermentation products). Individualist = appears in <5% of foods (carries signature notes). Threshold values are in clean water — the actual perception threshold in a food matrix can differ substantially.
How Lentils's 231 known compounds break down by aroma category. Percentages are of compounds with a known label.
9 of 231 are distinctive to lentils — they appear in under 10% of foods. The remainder are the background most foods share.
Ordered by measured impact in lentils — concentration against odour threshold where both are published, then by how distinctive the molecule is across the graph. Molecules measured here but not established as odorants sit below those that are.
Ranked by how often cooks actually use them together, across 453,403 recipes — the familiar answer first. Each pairing still carries its molecular score and shared-compound count; only the ORDER differs. Counts cover every characterised molecule the two ingredients have in common, not only the aroma-active ones, so they can exceed an ingredient’s aroma-compound count. For the chemistry-first view — where the surprising pairings live — see the molecular network below, the side-by-side comparison, or the Pairing Tool.
Lentils and its 10 closest compound-sharing relatives. Spoke thickness = shared compounds; circle size = that ingredient's own compound count. Drag to rearrange, scroll to zoom, click to open.
Compare Lentils side-by-side
Drawn from PubMed + Europe PMC + food-science journals. Click any title to read the full abstract on the original source.
This study investigated the effects of untreated, milled, and fermented with <i>Lactiplantibacillus plantarum</i> No. 122 red lentils (<i>Lens culinaris</i> L.) on the quality and... Read abstract →
Currently, the world witnesses a growing interest toward conversion to a plant-based diet due to some behavioral or nutritional reasons. The fried green burger (FGB), which is glob... Read abstract →
Lentils are gaining attention with the rise of plant-based diets, yet their consumption remains limited, partly due to poor canning quality. To identify the factors affecting canni... Read abstract →
Twelve Polish pea varieties were malted, and their technological properties were assessed, using a congress mashing regime. Alpha-amylase addition was also used to determine whethe... Read abstract →
Accumulation of heavy metals in food is a major concern for humans' health. This study was aimed at determining the levels of Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn in chickpea, lentil and pea samp... Read abstract →
