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Drop Dumplings

Drop dumplings are made from flour, baking powder, egg, lard, and salt, dropped into boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Drop Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift 2 teaspoons baking powder with 1 pint flour.

  2. Add 1 egg, 1 cup sweet milk or water, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 heaping teaspoon lard.

Cook

  1. Drop the mixture into boiling water.

  2. Cover and boil 10 minutes.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

648Calories
19 gProtein
19 gFat
96 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Martin, Maria Ewing, Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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. See the original page.

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. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + teatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together449 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + teatop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together821 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Flour
Forms the bulk of the dumpling and gives it structure as it cooks.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the hot liquid, helping the dumplings rise and turn light.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure to the dumplings.
Lard
Adds fat, which tenderizes the dumplings and keeps them from toughening.

The step that matters

Drop the mixture into boiling water. The dough must go into a rolling boil so the baking powder reacts quickly and the dumplings set on the outside. Dropping it into cooler water can make them heavy and gummy.

“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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