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Strawberry Dumplings

A sweet dumpling made with strawberry syrup and a batter of flour, milk, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Strawberry Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the strawberry syrup

  1. Combine sugar, butter, strawberries, and boiling water in a pot.

  2. Let the mixture simmer for a few minutes.

Make and cook the dumplings

  1. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt, and milk.

  2. Drop the batter in eight portions onto the simmering syrup.

  3. Cover tightly and boil for 20 minutes without lifting the lid.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with sauce.

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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Bread flour
Provides the starch and gluten structure that holds the dumplings together while they cook.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the dumplings rise and turn light and fluffy.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and fat to the batter, giving the dumplings a tender crumb.
Fresh strawberries
Release juice and flavour into the syrup, giving the dish its fruity sauce.
Sugar
Sweetens the strawberry syrup and helps it thicken as it simmers.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and boil without lifting the lid. Lifting the lid lets steam escape and the temperature drop, which can leave the dumplings dense or uncooked in the centre. Keeping the pot sealed holds steam in so the batter cooks through and rises evenly.

“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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