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Dessert

Apple Dumplings

Steamed dumplings made with flour, butter, milk, salt, and apples.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift flour and baking powder together in a bowl.

  2. Mix in butter until crumbly.

  3. Add sweet milk and salt; stir until combined.

Fill and steam

  1. Butter a plate that fits in your steamer.

  2. Divide dough into 7 parts and roll each out.

  3. Fill each dough piece with as much apple as possible.

  4. Place filled dumplings on the plate without touching.

  5. Steam for 45 minutes.

  6. Serve with your choice of sauce.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the dough once it is mixed with liquid.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the dumplings rise and turn light.
Butter
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the dough.
Sweet milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough comes together and stays moist.
Apples
Provide the filling, adding moisture and fruity sweetness as they steam.

The step that matters

Place filled dumplings on the plate without touching. Steamed dough expands as it cooks, so dumplings packed together can merge or stick. Spacing them lets steam circulate and keeps each dumpling's shape.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk. 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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Baked 92Boiled 30Steamed 8 See all 219 →

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