Skip to main content
Dessert

How We Cook in Tennessee

Apple dumplings are biscuit dough filled with apple, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, baked in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

How We Cook in Tennessee

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Make a rich biscuit dough, only add a little more shortening.

  2. Use one cup flour, one teaspoonful baking powder, one tablespoonful lard, salt, milk enough to make a soft dough.

  3. Take a piece of dough.

  4. Roll out almost as thin as piecrust.

  5. Cut in round pieces by a coffee saucer.

Fill and shape

  1. Sprinkle a spoonful of sugar, a pinch of cinnamon and a bit of butter on the chopped apple (allowing one small apple to each dumpling).

  2. Slice apples rather thin and in small pieces and roll up in dough; spice if preferred.

  3. Turn the ends of dough over the apple and lap them tight.

  4. Lay them in a pan, smooth side upward.

  5. Put a small piece of butter on each one.

  6. Sprinkle handful of sugar.

Make the sauce and bake

  1. Add one cup sugar, one and one-half of water, butter size of walnut.

  2. Prepare this before making dumplings and set back on stove until it thickens slightly.

  3. Have a deep pan.

  4. Turn in cup boiling water.

  5. Pour in center of pan of dumplings and bake in moderate oven rather slow.

  6. Bake in moderate oven three-quarters of an hour.

  7. Baste with the liquor once while baking.

  8. Nutmeg adds a nice flavor.

  9. Serve with sauce of cream and sugar or pudding sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1061Calories
28 gProtein
39 gFat
148 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Apple1 medium (182g)95
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Waternot in our table0
Dumplingnot in our table0

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

By Jackson (Tenn.). First Baptist Church. The Silver Thimble Society. 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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Cinnamon + appletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + appletop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough that wraps and holds the filling.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness in the dough and moisture under the apples.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling and syrup caramelize and brown.
Apple
Provides the fruit filling that softens and flavors the dumplings as they bake.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so it rises and bakes up light.
Lard
Shortens the dough, giving it a flaky, tender texture.

The step that matters

Roll the dough thin and lap it tight. Thin dough cooks through and bakes crisp rather than gummy, while tightly sealed edges keep the apple and syrup inside as the dumplings bake.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, cinnamon, egg. 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.

More apple dumplings recipes

Baked 92Boiled 30Steamed 8 See all 219 →

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipes