Why it works: Milk and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking soda, milk, lard, and salt to form a dough.
Knead the dough on a floured surface until smooth.
Assemble and bake
Roll out the dough and cut pieces large enough to cover each apple half.
Place two apple halves in the center of each dough piece, adding sugar to taste.
Fold the dough over the apples, sealing the edges.
Grease a baking dish and arrange the dumplings with the smooth side up.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
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.
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Milk + appletop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 structure of the dough that encloses the apples.
- Lard
- Adds fat that makes the dough tender and flaky as it bakes.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the milk to lift the dough and help it brown.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour so the dough can be kneaded into a smooth mass.
- Apples
- Provide the fruit filling that softens and sweetens as the dumplings bake.
The step that matters
Sealing the edges when folding the dough over the apples. If the seams are not sealed firmly, the filling can leak out during baking and the dumplings may open or dry out. Good sealing keeps the juices and steam inside the dough.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, milk):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, 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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