Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Apple Dumplings
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the apples
Peel and core the apples, then cut them in half.
Make the dough
Mash the potatoes and sift them through a colander.
Add butter and salt to the potatoes, then stir in milk until the mixture is stiff like pound cake.
Beat the egg white until light and mix it into the potato mixture.
Gradually add flour until the dough is firm enough to roll.
Form and cook
If the apples are large, cut them into quarters and use 2-3 pieces for each dumpling.
Form the dumplings and place them in boiling water, ensuring there is plenty of space.
Cook for about 30 minutes.
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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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Potato + milktop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,611 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).
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Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Apples
- Provide the fruit filling and a tender, sweet-tart flavor when cooked.
- Potatoes
- Add moisture and a soft, tender body to the dough.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the dough a tender crumb.
- Milk
- Hydrates the potato mixture so it forms a stiff, workable dough.
- Egg white
- Adds structure and binding so the dumplings hold together while cooking.
- All-purpose flour
- Provides gluten-forming structure so the dough becomes firm enough to roll.
The step that matters
Forming the dumplings with space in the water. Dumplings need room to expand and cook evenly in boiling water. Crowding them lowers the water temperature and can make them stick together or cook unevenly.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, butter, milk, egg, flour):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Coconutfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against potato, butter, milk, egg, flour. 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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