Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓
Apple Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the paste
In a bowl, mix shredded suet, coarse sea salt, flour, and baking powder.
Add enough cold water to form a stiff paste, using a fork to mix.
Roll out the paste and line a well-buttered basin with it.
Fill and boil
Fill the basin with sliced apples, adding sugar, cloves, and a little water.
Cover the apples with the paste and pinch the edges to seal.
Tie the basin in a well-floured cloth and boil for 2.5 hours.
After boiling, cut a small hole in the top to release steam.
Serve
Serve with sweet sauce.
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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Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,774 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + clovetop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,671 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Flour + appletop 22% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,140 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Melts during boiling to give the paste a rich, tender, flaky texture.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the paste's structure, holding it together around the filling as it cooks.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas to lighten the paste so it rises slightly rather than staying dense.
- Apples
- Provide the main filling, softening as they cook and becoming tender and juicy.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the apples.
The step that matters
Mixing the paste to a stiff consistency. Adding too much cold water makes the paste slack and soggy, so it won't hold its shape around the apples. Mixing with a fork and adding water gradually keeps it stiff enough to wrap and seal the filling during boiling.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, apple, sugar):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Jalapenofits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, apple, sugar. 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.
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