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Beefsteak Dumpling

A boiled dumpling made from beef, salt, flour, suet paste, and ketchup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and ketchup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,435 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Beefsteak Dumpling

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beef

  1. Cut the beef into neat bits.

  2. Sprinkle salt on the beef and roll it up tightly.

  3. Dust the rolls with flour.

Assemble the dumpling

  1. Line a basin with plain suet paste.

  2. Fill the basin with the beef rolls.

  3. Pour a little ketchup over the meat.

  4. Cover the meat with more paste.

  5. Tie the basin in a floured cloth.

Cook

  1. Boil for 3 hours.

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. Flour + ketchuptop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Beef + ketchuptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,067 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Beef + flourtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Beef and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,677 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

Beef
Provides the main filling and savory meaty flavor of the dumpling.
Plain suet paste
Forms the outer casing that encloses the filling and holds its shape during boiling.
Ketchup
Adds moisture and a sweet-tangy flavor to the meat.

“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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