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Fine Suet Dumplings

A sweet dumpling made from stale bread, suet, sugar, eggs, nutmeg, boiled and served with wine sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24,744 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Fine Suet Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Grate the crumb of a stale six-cent loaf and mix it with nearly as much beef suet, chopped finely.

  2. Add grated nutmeg and two tablespoonfuls of sugar.

  3. Beat four eggs with four tablespoonfuls of white wine or brandy and mix all together to a stiff paste.

Shape and boil

  1. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into balls or dumplings about the size of turkey eggs.

  2. Prepare a pot of boiling water.

  3. Place the dumplings into cloths and boil for about half an hour.

  4. Serve hot with wine sauce.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

139Calories
6 gProtein
6 gFat
14 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12

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

By Eliza Leslie. 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. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + nutmegtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together23,364 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Six cent loaf
Stale bread crumb gives the dumplings body and a light, absorbent structure.
Beef suet (in the method)
Fat that adds richness and a tender texture as the dumplings cook.
Eggs
Bind the crumbs and suet into a cohesive paste that holds its shape.

The step that matters

Mix to a stiff paste. If the mixture is too wet, the dumplings can fall apart in the boiling water; the crumbs need to absorb the liquid evenly so the balls hold together during cooking.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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.

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