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Dessert

Rolled Apple Dumpling

A steamed dumpling filled with quartered apples, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Rolled Apple Dumpling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat your steamer.

  2. In a bowl, mix flour, baking powder, and salt.

  3. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  4. Stir in milk to form a rich dough.

  5. Roll out the dough to about ½ inch thick.

Fill and wrap

  1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples.

  2. Place apple quarters on the dough and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and bits of butter.

  3. Roll the dough over the apples, pressing the ends tightly together.

Steam and serve

  1. Steam for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

  2. Serve with molasses or your choice of 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the dough's structure once mixed with liquid and fat.
Unsalted butter
Cut into the flour to create tender, flaky layers in the dough.
Baking powder
Releases gas during steaming, helping the dough rise and turn light.
Milk
Hydrates the flour to bind the dough and add richness.
Sour apples
Provide tart flavor and moisture that cooks down inside the dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apple filling taste balanced against the tartness.

The step that matters

Pressing the dough closed around the apples. If the ends are not sealed tightly, steam and apple juices can escape or leak out, leaving the filling dry or the dumpling misshapen.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, molasses):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, molasses. 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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