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Potato Dumplings

A boiled potato dumpling made with grated potatoes, onion, eggs, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the potatoes

  1. Boil the potatoes until tender, then let them cool overnight.

  2. Grate or finely chop the cooled potatoes.

Make the dough

  1. Brown the onion in the fat.

  2. Mix the browned onion with the grated potatoes.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and enough flour to form a stiff dough.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into dumplings and boil in salted water for 10 minutes.

  2. Serve immediately.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Potatoes
Form the bulk of the dumpling and give it a soft, starchy body.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help hold the dumplings together as they cook.
Flour
Adds body to the dough so it holds its shape when boiled.
Onion
Adds savory flavor and aroma once browned in fat.
Fat
Carries the onion's flavor and adds richness to the dough.

The step that matters

Shape the mixture into dumplings and boil in salted water for 10 minutes.. If the dough is too wet or too loose, the dumplings can break apart in the water. Enough flour gives a stiff dough that holds its shape, and keeping the water at a gentle boil helps them cook through without falling apart.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (potato, egg, flour, pepper):

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, egg, flour, pepper. 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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