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Beefsteak Dumpling

A dumpling made of beef pieces wrapped in suet paste, boiled for three hours.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and ketchup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,435 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beefsteak Dumpling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Sprinkle salt on the beef bits and roll them tightly.

  2. Dust the beef rolls with flour.

Fill the basin

  1. Line a basin with plain suet paste and fill it with the beef rolls.

  2. Pour a little ketchup over the meat.

  3. Cover the meat with more paste.

  4. Tie the basin with a floured cloth.

Boil

  1. Boil for three hours.

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. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef
Forms the main filling and provides the meaty flavour and substance of the dumpling.
Plain suet paste
Adds fat that makes the pastry rich and tender as it cooks.
Ketchup
Adds moisture and a sweet-sharp tang that seasons the meat.

The step that matters

Tie the basin with a floured cloth. The cloth needs to be tied snugly so the dumpling is sealed against the boiling water. The flour keeps the cloth from sticking to the paste, so it can be lifted off cleanly after cooking.

“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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