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Dessert

Apple Dumplings

Apples wrapped in a flour dough with butter and cottolene, filled with sugar, butter and cinnamon, and boiled in cloths.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine the butter and cottolene with the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add the milk gradually to form a soft dough.

  3. Roll the dough out to ¼ inch thick.

Assemble the dumplings

  1. Peel the apples.

  2. Core the apples.

  3. Fill the cores with a mixture of sugar, butter, and cinnamon.

  4. Cut the dough into squares large enough to wrap around the apples.

  5. Place an apple in the center of each square.

  6. Fold the dough over the apple.

  7. Pinch the edges to seal.

  8. Wrap each dumpling in a small cloth, leaving room for expansion.

Cook

  1. Boil for 1 hour.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the dough that encloses the apple.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the dough and flavor to the filling.
Cottolene
Adds fat that keeps the dough tender and flaky.
Baking powder
Releases gas that lifts the dough so it becomes light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour so the dough holds together and becomes soft.
Firm tart apples
Provide the fruit filling and a tart flavor that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Pinch the edges to seal. If the dough is not sealed tightly, the filling and juices can leak out during boiling, and the dumpling may open or lose its shape.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, milk, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, sugar, cinnamon. 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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