Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dumplings
Mix the bread crumbs, chopped suet, flour, lemon rind, powdered sugar, beaten eggs, and lemon juice in a bowl.
Divide the mixture into four equal portions.
Tie each portion in a well-floured cloth.
Cook and serve
Boil the dumplings for one hour.
Serve warm.
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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Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Fine bread crumbs
- Provides the bulk of the dumpling and absorbs the liquid to hold its shape.
- Suet
- Adds fat that keeps the dumplings moist and tender as they cook.
- Eggs
- Bind the mixture together and help it set firm when cooked.
- Powdered sugar
- Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the mixture.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright lemon flavour that cuts the richness of the suet.
The step that matters
Tie the cloths firmly and boil. The cloth must be well floured so the dumpling does not stick, and it should be tied snugly so the mixture keeps its shape while it boils. Loose cloths let water in and the dumpling can fall apart.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, flour, sugar, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, flour, sugar, egg. 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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