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Potato Dumplings

A dish of boiled potato dumplings simmered in chicken or beef broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Potato Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the dough

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

  2. Grate the cooled potatoes.

  3. In a skillet, brown the bread crumbs in butter over medium heat, then remove from the stove.

  4. Combine the grated potatoes, browned bread crumbs, and enough flour to form a sticky dough.

  5. Shape the mixture into balls and roll them in flour.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat the chicken or beef broth in a pot and drop in the dumplings.

  2. Allow the broth to come to a boil before serving.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Potato + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  5. Bread + chickentop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Boiled potatoes
Provide the starchy bulk that gives the dumplings their body.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and add a toasted, nutty flavor and a firmer texture.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor when used to brown the bread crumbs.
All-purpose flour
Binds the mixture into a dough and helps the balls keep their shape.

The step that matters

Combine to a sticky dough without overworking. Adding too much flour makes dumplings dense and tough, since the gluten and starch set heavier. Add flour only until the mixture just holds its shape.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, flour, chicken):

  1. Leekfits about as well
  2. Shallotfits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, flour, chicken. 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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