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Suffolk Dumplings
Mix some bread dough lightly with milk instead of water; let it rise before the fire for an hour. Have ready a saucepan of fast-boiling water. Divide the dough into balls the size of an orange, throw them into the water, and boil them quickly until done enough. When a fork stuck to the centre of them comes out quite clean they are cooked sufficiently. Serve at once. When eating the dumplings do not cut them with a knife, but tear them apart with a fork and spoon. Send butter and sugar, and lemon-juice, or treacle, to table with them. Time to boil, twenty minutes. Sufficient, allow one for each person.
A plain boiled bread dumpling that stands or falls on two things: a lively, well-risen dough and water that never stops boiling.
- The dough"Some bread dough" means ordinary risen white bread dough, here mixed with milk in place of the usual water, which softens the crumb. About 1 lb (450 g) of dough will give four orange-sized balls.
- Keep the water at a rolling boilThis is the hinge. Dumplings dropped into water that has gone off the boil sit and absorb liquid, and come out heavy and grey. Use a wide pan, plenty of water, and let it recover fully between each ball.
- Do not crowd the panThe dumplings swell considerably as the yeast makes its last push in the heat. Give each one room or they will fuse and cook unevenly.
- Twenty minutes, lid onTwenty minutes -- Twenty minutes at a fast boil is right for orange-sized balls. The fork test still works: it should come out clean and dry, not tacky. Larger dumplings need proportionally longer.
- Tearing rather than cuttingThe recipe is explicit: fork and spoon, not a knife. The usual explanation given is that a blade drawn through a hot, steamy dumpling compresses the crumb, while pulling it apart lets the steam escape and keeps it light.
- TreacleBritish treacle here means dark treacle or golden syrup, both still sold. Molasses is the nearest widely available substitute for the dark kind, though it is more bitter.
- ServingOne per person, straight from the pan onto warm plates. The recipe insists they be served at once, so have the butter, sugar and lemon already on the table.
Suffolk dumplings belong to a family of East Anglian boiled dough puddings made from the same yeast dough as the household bread — no suet, no eggs, nothing that had to be bought in. That thrift is the point: the dough was already rising for the week's baking, and a handful of it dropped into boiling water fed the table without touching the meat. Such dumplings are often said to have been served before the joint rather than after, on the principle that whoever ate most dumplings would want least beef, and the sweet accompaniments listed here — butter and sugar, lemon juice, treacle — are the alternative, dessert-side treatment.