Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
A Nice Apple Dumpling
Ingredients
Directions
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix buttermilk, lard or butter, egg, salt, and baking soda.
Add flour gradually until you achieve a stiff batter.
Assemble and steam
Grease cups with butter and drop a tablespoon of batter into each.
Place a prepared apple in each cup and cover with more batter.
Place the cups in a steamer and cook for one hour.
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.
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Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,721 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + appletop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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
- Buttermilk
- Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda to lighten the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic buttermilk to produce gas that makes the batter rise.
- Egg
- Binds the batter and adds structure as it cooks.
- Lard or butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the stiff batter together while it steams.
- Apples
- Provide the fruit filling that becomes tender and sweet inside the dumpling.
The step that matters
Adding the flour. Flour should be added gradually until the batter is stiff. Too much flour makes the dumpling dense, while too little leaves it too loose to hold its shape while steaming.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (buttermilk, butter, egg, flour):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against buttermilk, butter, egg, flour. 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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