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Dumpling Drops
Take one pound and a half of the best flour, make a hole in the middle, into which put a quarter of an ounce of fresh German yeast, with a quarter of a pint of warm water or milk, mix it into a thin batter, scatter a little flour lightly over the top, and leave it by the side of the fire to rise. When well risen make it into a dough, with a little more warm milk, to which add two well-beaten eggs and a little salt. Let it rise for an hour, form it into light balls, and drop them one by one into fast-boiling water. When done, drain them an instant, but send to table quickly with gravy, or sugar and butter, or with melted butter, sweetened and flavoured with lemon-juice. Time, twenty minutes to boil. Probable cost, about 8d.
A yeast-raised boiled dumpling, leavened in two stages and served either as a savoury side or a sweet pudding. The dough is slack and lively, so the handling matters more than the ingredient list.
- The hinge: water at a bare simmerDespite the instruction to drop them into fast-boiling water, a rolling boil batters risen yeast dough and can collapse it. Bring the pan to the boil, then hold it at a lazy simmer, cover, and do not crowd the pan; the dumplings swell considerably.
- German yeast"Fresh German yeast" is compressed cake yeast. A quarter of an ounce is about 7 g fresh, equivalent to roughly 1 teaspoon of instant dried yeast. Instant can be stirred straight into the flour rather than sponged, though the sponge gives a better flavour.
- Quantities in modern termsA pound and a half of flour is about 5 1/2 cups; a quarter of a pint (imperial) is 5 fl oz, or a generous half cup. Use plain bread or all-purpose flour, not self-raising.
- "By the side of the fire"This means a warm, draught-free spot, somewhere in the region of 80F, not direct heat. A turned-off oven with the light on works. The sponge is ready when it is domed and bubbling, often 20 to 30 minutes.
- TimingTwenty minutes suits small dumplings, roughly plum-sized, though the recipe does not specify a size. Test one by splitting it: the centre should be dry and open-crumbed, not gluey. Larger dumplings need 25 to 30 minutes and should be turned once.
- Serving and yieldThe dough makes roughly 14 to 18 dumplings, enough for six to eight. Serve them the moment they drain, as they firm up and go dense within a few minutes of leaving the water.
- The sweet finishMelted butter sweetened and sharpened with lemon juice is essentially a warm lemon butter sauce; the recipe gives no proportions, but a tablespoon of sugar to two ounces of butter with the juice of half a lemon is one workable balance.
These belong to the family of yeast-raised dumplings that includes the German Hefekloße and the steamed Dampfnudeln, though "fresh German yeast" was simply the British trade name for compressed yeast and does not by itself establish where the dish came from. Compressed yeast, sold in cakes, was a comparatively recent convenience for British cooks in the second half of the nineteenth century, and imported Austrian and German yeast had a reputation for reliability that older brewers' barm did not. The recipe is a technique worth knowing: a dough leavened twice and cooked in water rather than an oven, capable of standing in as either a savoury accompaniment to gravy or a pudding, depending on what the sauce does. The costing in pence, given as a matter of course, is a routine feature of the book.