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Potato Dumplings

A simple potato dumpling dish with buttered onion topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Potato Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dumplings

  1. In a bowl, combine the grated potato, flour, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Mould the mixture into soft balls.

  3. Drop the balls immediately into boiling salted water.

Brown the onion and serve

  1. In a pan, melt the butter and add the sliced onion.

  2. Let the onion brown, then pour the mixture over the dumplings.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Raw grated potato
Adds moisture and body to the soft dough.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dumplings together.
Baking powder
Releases gas that helps the dumplings rise and become light.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the onion brown.
Onion
Adds sweetness and savoury flavour when it browns.

The step that matters

Drop the balls immediately into boiling salted water. Boiling water sets the outside of the dough quickly, so the dumplings hold their shape. Waiting lets the soft dough soften and break apart, and the baking powder starts releasing gas before cooking, which weakens the rise.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against potato, flour, egg, 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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