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Meat Dumplings

A dish of beef dumplings dropped into boiling soup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Beef and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,052 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Meat Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped beef, beaten egg yolk, salt, pepper, grated potato, beaten egg white, and soaked bread.

Shape and cook

  1. Form the mixture into balls.

  2. Drop the balls into boiling soup.

  3. When they rise to the top, they are done and should be served 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. Beef + potatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,052 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Beef + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,971 recipes

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

  4. Beef + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped beef
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the dumpling.
Egg yolk
Adds richness and helps bind the mixture together.
Grated potato
Adds moisture and softness to the filling.
Egg white
Helps bind the filling and gives it a light, set structure when cooked.
Bread soaked in water
Absorbs liquid and keeps the filling tender and moist.

The step that matters

Drop the balls into boiling soup. The water must be at a full boil so the dumplings cook through quickly and hold their shape. Lower heat can let the balls break apart or turn heavy and dense inside.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against beef, egg, pepper, bread. 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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