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Paste for Meat Dumplins

A dough made from flour, suet, milk, and salt, wrapped around parboiled meat and cooked in gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Paste for Meat Dumplins

Ingredients

Directions

Make the paste

  1. Chop half a pound of suet very fine.

  2. Add one and a quarter pound of flour and a little salt.

  3. Mix it up with half a pint of milk.

  4. Knead it till it looks light.

Fill the bowl

  1. Take a bowl of proper size and rub the inside with butter.

  2. Roll out the paste and lay it in the bowl.

  3. Parboil beef steaks, mutton-chops, or any kind of meat you like.

  4. Season the meat and lay it in the bowl.

  5. Fill the bowl with rich gravy.

  6. Close the paste over the top.

Boil and serve

  1. Get a very thick cloth that will keep out the water.

  2. Wet and flour the cloth.

  3. Place the cloth over the top of the bowl.

  4. Gather it at the bottom and tie it very securely.

  5. Boil the water in the bowl.

  6. When done, dip the top in cold water for a moment so the cloth may not stick to the paste.

  7. Untie and take it off carefully.

  8. Put a dish on the bowl and turn it over.

  9. If properly made, it will come out without breaking.

  10. Have gravy in a boat to eat with it.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

604Calories
21 gProtein
9 gFat
107 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
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 Mary Randolph. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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

Suet
Adds fat that keeps the dumpling paste moist and tender as it cooks.
Flour
Forms the paste's structure, holding the dumpling together while it boils.
Milk
Moistens the flour and suet into a dough that can be kneaded and rolled.
Beef steaks and mutton-chops (in the method)
Provide the meat filling, which is parboiled before it goes into the paste.

The step that matters

Dip the top in cold water before untying. Brief cold water chilling firms the surface of the steamed paste so the cloth releases without tearing it.

“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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