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Dessert

Apple Dumplings

Apple dumplings are apples wrapped in pastry dough, boiled, and served with melted butter and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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

Prepare

  1. Peel the apples but do not core them.

  2. Wrap each apple in a thin layer of pastry dough with two cloves inside.

  3. Tie each wrapped apple in a piece of cloth.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the wrapped apples in water for about 1 hour.

  2. Serve with melted butter or a slice of butter and sugar.

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. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Clove + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,045 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apples
Soften into a tender, sweet-tart filling inside the pastry as they cook.
Pastry dough
Encloses each apple, forming a sealed crust that holds the fruit during boiling.
Cloves
Add a warm, spicy aroma that flavors the apple as it cooks.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat to the finished dumplings.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the apples.

The step that matters

Wrapping and tying each apple. The pastry and cloth must fully enclose the apple with no gaps. Gaps let boiling water reach the fruit, which can make the pastry soggy or split and the filling watery.

Swap the clove

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

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

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