LENTILS
Lentils are, comparatively speaking, a novel form of food in this country, though they have been used abroad for many years, and a recipe for cooking them will be found in a well-known work, published in Paris in 1846, entitled "La Cuisiniere de la Campagne et de la Ville; ou, Nouvelle Cuisine Economique," one of the most popular French cookery-books ever published, and which in that year had reached a circulation of 80,000 copies.
Recipes for boiled lentils and lentil soup are given in "Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery," published in 1875; but it is stated in the introductory remarks that lentils are little used in England except as food for pigeons, and adds, "They are seldom offered for sale." Since that date lentils have become an exceedingly popular form of food in many households, and vegetarians generally regard them as one of the most nourishing forms of food served at the table. There are two kinds of lentils, the German and Egyptian. The Egyptian are red and much smaller than the German, which are green. The former kind are generally used on the Continent, in Italy and the South of France, while, as the name implies, the green lentils are more commonly used in Eastern Europe. Either kind, however, can be used for making soup and puree, recipes of which have already been given, as well as for the recipes in the present chapter.
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From Cassell's Vegetarian Cookery - A Manual Of Cheap And Wholesome Diet by A. G. Payne
