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
In a bowl, mix sour cream, buttermilk, baking soda, and salt to form a light dough.
Roll out the dough and cut it into large biscuit-sized pieces.
Roll each piece like pie crust.
Place a quartered apple on each piece, sprinkle with sugar and spices.
Gather the edges of the dough around the apple and press firmly to seal.
Shape the dumplings slightly by rolling them in your hands.
Place them smooth side up in a baking pan.
Moisten the tops with sweet cream and sprinkle with sugar flavored with lemon.
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.
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Buttermilk + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,973 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + buttermilktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together674 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Buttermilk + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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):
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Raspberryfits better
- 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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