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Steamed Dumpling

A yeast-based dumpling steamed for an hour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Steamed Dumpling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Melt the butter and yeast cake in warmed milk or water.

  2. Beat the egg.

  3. Sift together flour, salt, and sugar.

  4. Mix all ingredients.

  5. Set in a warm place for 1 hour.

  6. Beat the mixture.

Steam

  1. Fill a mold one-third full.

  2. Let the dough rise until nearly doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

  3. Set in a steamer.

  4. Cook for 1 hour.

  5. Cover.

  6. Keep hot until ready to serve.

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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Yeast cake
Ferments the dough so it rises and becomes light and airy.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough once it is mixed and set.
Egg
Adds richness and helps bind the dough together.
Butter
Adds fat for a softer texture and richer flavour.
Sugar
Feeds the yeast and adds a touch of sweetness.

The step that matters

Let the dough rise until nearly doubled in bulk. Yeast gas must expand the dough enough to make it light. Under-proofed dough steams up dense, while over-proofed dough can collapse and turn heavy.

“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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