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Turkey Dumplings

A baked dumpling made with shortcake dough, turkey, and bechamel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Turkey Dumplings

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dumplings

  1. Roll out the shortcake dough on a floured surface to about ¼ inch thick and cut into circular pieces, 4 inches in diameter.

  2. Spread each piece generously with butter.

  3. In a bowl, combine chopped turkey, dressing, minced celery, and giblet gravy to moisten.

  4. Place a tablespoon of the turkey mixture in the center of each dough piece.

  5. Fold the dough over the filling, sealing the edges to form balls.

Bake the dumplings

  1. Arrange the dumplings in a deep baking dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

Make the Bechamel sauce

  1. For the Bechamel sauce, cook white stock with onion, carrot, bay leaf, parsley, and peppercorns until reduced to 1 cup.

  2. In a separate pan, brown flour in butter, then add the stock and beat until smooth.

  3. Stir in hot cream and season with salt and pepper.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Celery + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Shortcake dough
Forms the tender, rich wrapper that encloses the filling while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the dough brown and stay tender.
Cold turkey
Provides the savory, protein-rich filling that gives the dumplings their main flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce by cooking with butter and then stock, giving body to the bechamel.
Hot cream
Adds richness and smoothness to the bechamel sauce.

The step that matters

Sealing the dumplings. If the edges are not sealed well, the filling can leak out during baking and the dough may open. Pressing the edges firmly keeps the filling moist inside.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, turkey, celery, sauce, carrot, parsley, flour):

  1. Turnipfits better
  2. Parsnipfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, turkey, celery, sauce, carrot, parsley, 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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