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Apple Dumplings

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Buttermilk and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,973 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix sour cream, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt to form a light dough.

  2. Roll out the dough and cut it into large biscuit-sized pieces.

  3. Roll each piece like pie crust.

  4. Place a quartered apple on each piece, sprinkle with sugar and spices.

  5. Gather the edges of the dough around the apple and press firmly to seal.

  6. Shape the dumplings slightly by rolling them in your hands.

  7. Place them smooth side up in a baking pan.

  8. Moisten the tops with sweet cream and sprinkle with sugar flavored with lemon.

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. Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,973 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together674 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Buttermilk + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together501 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, buttermilk, sugar, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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