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Dumplings for Stews

A simple dumpling made from flour, baking powder, egg, salt, and milk, dropped into broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Dumplings for Stews

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, egg, and a pinch of salt.

  2. Gradually add enough milk to create a stiff dough.

Cook the dumplings

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough into chicken or beef broth.

  2. Do not boil the dumplings for too long, as this will cause them to fall apart.

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 + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Forms the main structure of the dumplings as it sets with heat.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough, helping the dumplings rise and stay light.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture to bring the flour into a stiff, workable dough.

The step that matters

Keep the broth at a gentle simmer. Vigorous boiling can break the delicate dumplings apart. A gentle simmer lets the dough steam-cook through while holding its shape.

“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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