Skip to main content
Main

Meat Dumplings and Spanish Sauce

A dish of boiled beef dumplings served with a tomato and onion sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Beef and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,092 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Meat Dumplings and Spanish Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

Make the meatballs

  1. Mix the chopped beef, water, and flour in a bowl until combined.

  2. Form the mixture into balls.

  3. Drop the meatballs into boiling water and cook for 15 minutes.

  4. Remove the meatballs from the water.

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Cook the onion for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the canned tomatoes, flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne to the skillet. Stir and cook until heated through.

Serve

  1. Place the meatballs on a platter.

  2. Garnish the meatballs with the sauce.

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. Beef + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Beef + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,448 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped cold beef
Forms the body of the meatballs, giving them their main substance and bite.
Flour
Binds the meat mixture and helps the meatballs hold their shape while cooking.
Onion
Adds savory sweetness and aroma as it softens in the butter.
Canned tomatoes
Provide acidity and liquid that form the body of the sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor as the onion cooks.

The step that matters

Drop the meatballs into boiling water and cook for 15 minutes. The water must be at a full boil when the meatballs go in so the outside sets quickly and they hold their shape instead of breaking apart. Cooking them through for the full time ensures the centers are fully cooked.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beef, flour, onion, butter, pepper):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, flour, onion, butter, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesRoast BeefRoast Beef211 recipesBeef LoafBeef Loaf175 recipesCream of Tomato SoupCream of Tomato Soup107 recipes