I normally cook the brown lentils or sometimes the smaller, darker, French
kind. I got some bulk red ones. I know that you have to be careful in
cooking those because they go mushy easily.

First time I cooked them, they went to total mush at 20 min. Edible but more
like soup.

I just cooked more, checking at 10 min. Not done. At 15 min. I fished out a
few to test. They had gone to mush.

I let them sit while I did a few things, then when I went to dish them up, I
noticed that about half were mush and half were not done! There was plenty
of liquid left. So why did they do this?

I cooked them for another 3 min. The ones that were not done, did get done
but the rest went beyond mush. They were like a thick liquid. Ick!

I won't buy these again. I have maybe a cup left. If I use them, they'll go
in soup.

Where did I go wrong? Only things I added were water and a bay leaf.