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 ↓
Dumplings Made with Apples
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dumplings
Make a puff pastry crust and roll it out thicker than a silver dollar.
Peel and core the apples, then fill the openings with cinnamon, sugar, and lemon peel.
Wrap each apple in a portion of the puff pastry and tie them in separate cloths.
Boil and finish
Boil the dumplings for about one hour.
Cut a small piece off the top of each dumpling and pour in melted butter.
Replace the piece of crust, place the dumplings in a dish, and sift sugar over them.
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.
-
Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Cinnamon and sugar 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
- Butter
- Creates flaky layers in the puff pastry and adds richness to the crust.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten structure that holds the pastry around the apple.
- Apples
- Provide the filling that softens and turns sweet-tart as it cooks.
- Fine sugar
- Sweetens the apple filling and adds a sweet finish on top.
- Ground cinnamon
- Adds a warm aroma to the apple filling.
- Lemon peel
- Adds bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness of the apples.
The step that matters
Wrapping each apple in pastry. The pastry must be fully sealed around each apple and tied tightly in its cloth. Any gap lets the sugary filling leak out during the long boil, leaving the apple dry and the crust soggy.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, apple, cinnamon, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Pearfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, apple, cinnamon, 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.
More apple dumplings recipes
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.