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 ↓
Boiled Apple-dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the dough
Pare and core the apples.
In a pot, add about 3 inches of water or fill a pot with boiling water for steaming.
Mix the flour and butter or lard, then add salt and baking powder.
Moisten with enough milk to make a soft dough that can be rolled out easily.
Roll out the dough to about 1 inch thick and cut into circles the size of a breakfast plate.
Fill and cook
Place an apple in the center of each dough circle, fill the core with sugar and a little cinnamon, and fold the dough over the apple.
Tie each dumpling in a floured cloth, leaving room for expansion.
Boil in a kettle of boiling water for 30 minutes or steam on a tin plate for 40 minutes.
Serve hot with Hard 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 + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Forms the structure of the dough that encloses the apple.
- Butter or lard
- Works into the flour to add tenderness and richness to the dough.
- Milk
- Hydrates the flour so the dough becomes soft and rollable.
- Baking powder
- Releases gas during cooking so the dough rises and lightens.
- Apples
- Provide the tender, tart fruit filling at the center of each dumpling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apple filling and adds to its flavor.
The step that matters
Tie the dumplings with room to expand. Baking powder releases gas as the dumpling cooks, so the dough needs space to rise. Tying it too tightly can trap the expansion and make the dumpling heavy or split it open.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, 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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