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Dessert

Apple Dumplings

Apple dumplings are sweet pastry pockets filled with apples, sugar, butter, and clove, boiled until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and clove are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Apple Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift the flour, cream of tartar, and salt together.

  2. Rub in the lard.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Add enough sweet milk or water to make a dough slightly stiffer than biscuit dough.

  5. Roll out the dough to a thickness slightly greater than pie crust.

Assemble the dumplings

  1. Cut the dough into squares and place a prepared apple in the center of each.

  2. Fill the core hole of the apple with sugar, a bit of butter, and a clove.

  3. Bring the corners of the dough together and pinch to form a firm ball.

  4. Tie each dumpling in a loose cloth that has been dipped in hot water and floured on the inside.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the dumplings for one hour.

  2. Serve hot with sweet cream, or butter and sugar. They can also be baked or steamed.

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. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the dough around the apple while it cooks.
Lard
Rubbed into the flour to add tenderness by coating flour particles with fat.
Cream of tartar
Acts with baking soda to produce carbon dioxide, helping the dough rise lightly.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to leaven the dough.
Sour apples
Provide the tart fruit filling that softens and flavors the dumpling as it cooks.

The step that matters

Tie the cloth dipped in hot water and floured. A hot, floured cloth keeps the dough from sticking and forms a skin that helps the dumpling hold its shape during boiling.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, cream, milk, apple, sugar, butter):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits about as well
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, cream, milk, apple, sugar, butter. 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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