Lens culinaris, a legume which originated in the Near East. It has been cultivated since antiquity in Egypt and remains of it have been found in many prehistoric sites in Europe. India is the chief producer, followed closely by Canada (which is the largest exporter).
The plant is an annual, around 40 cm (16″) tall, whose edible seeds develop in short pods, each typically containing two seeds. The seeds come in various sizes, from tiny to small. They also vary in colour in both the husked and unhusked state. The two main types noticeable among lentils of the Near East and Asia are: first, those which are relatively large and light coloured or yellow; and second, the small ones, which are brown, pink, or grey. In India, it is the pink lentils which are mainly eaten by Muslims in the north, especially in Bengal; and the same applies in Pakistan.
The best-known cultivar is Red (also known as Egyptian or Masoor), salmon in colour when husked.
However, attempts to list lentils run up against a fundamental difficulty; the use of the word in an Indian context is much looser, spilling over from Lens culinaris into other species, as though lentil had much the same meaning as dal (split pulse). So, to take but one example, the seeds of Cajanus cajan, pigeon pea, may be called ‘yellow lentils’.
In Europe, some kinds of lentil have achieved the status of a delicacy, e.g. the French variety Verte du Puy, very small, green, and relatively expensive. But lentils, like other pulses, figure more often in hearty dishes than in delicate and costly ones. Lentil soup is filling, and so are various winter dishes which combine lentils with sausages or other pork products.
Next to soya beans, lentils have the highest protein content of all vegetables (just on 25%). They are valued for this reason in Asia, and it may also account in part for their being a favoured food during Lent in Roman Catholic countries. (This has led some to suppose that there is a connection between the names. Indeed, in parts of England ‘lentils’ was turned into ‘Lent tills’ and then shortened to ‘tills’. However, the true derivation is from the Latin lens, through the diminutive lenticula and the French lentille.)
Lentils have the distinction of being the subject of one of the most eccentric, and endearing, food books of the 19th century: Food for the People; or, Lentils and Other Vegetable Cookery, by Eleanor E. Orlebar (1879). The author, who had previously written a book on Sancta Christina, displays classical scholarship, a gift for rhetoric (evidenced by her letters to The Times), and an unerring eye for quaint details (for example in describing scenes in people's cafés and the haunts of Danielites). The temptation to reproduce pieces of her prose can only be resisted on the assumption that the whole book will be reprinted before long.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
Orlebar, Eleanor (1879), Food for the People, London: Sampson Low, Marston, etc.
