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Suet, or Dumplings

A suet-based dumpling made by mixing suet, flour, breadcrumbs, salt, eggs, and milk, then boiling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,466 recipes. Both carry 2-undecenal, which smells sweet. The science ↓

Suet, or Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a basin, combine the chopped suet, flour, bread crumbs, and salt. Mix well.

  2. In a separate plate, beat the eggs and add the milk gradually, mixing well.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.

Shape and cook

  1. Divide the mixture into six portions and shape into dumplings. Tie each dumpling in a cloth dusted with flour.

  2. Boil the dumplings for one hour. Serve fried in butter the next day if desired.

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. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, 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
Provides fat that melts during boiling, keeping the dumplings rich and tender.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough that holds the dumplings together.
Eggs
Bind the dry ingredients and add structure as they set during cooking.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and lighten the texture of the dough.
Milk
Hydrates the flour and crumbs so the dough comes together with moisture.

The step that matters

Tie each dumpling in a cloth dusted with flour. The floured cloth keeps the dumpling from sticking and helps it hold its shape. A cloth that is too loose lets water in and the dumpling can break apart while boiling.

“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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