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Paste for Boiled Dumplings
One quart flour, three good-sized Irish potatoes (boiled and mashed). One tablespoonful butter, and the same of lard. One teaspoonful soda, and two teaspoonfuls cream of tartar.--Mrs.E.W.
This is a dough formula rather than a finished dish: a leavened potato paste meant to be rolled or dropped into simmering broth or a fruit stew. The original gives no liquid, no salt and no method, so a few decisions are yours.
- A quart of flourFlour was measured by volume in this book: a quart is about 4 cups, roughly 1 lb of all-purpose flour. Scoop and level rather than packing it.
- Irish potatoesOrdinary white potatoes, the term distinguishing them from sweet potatoes, which were also common in Virginia kitchens. Three good-sized ones boiled and mashed is roughly 1 to 1 1/4 lb, or about 2 cups mashed; mash them smooth and let them cool to lukewarm before mixing in.
- The missing liquidNo liquid is listed, and the mashed potato alone will not bring a pound of flour together. Expect to add about 3/4 to 1 cup of milk or water, a little at a time, until the paste is soft and just short of sticky. This is the point where the recipe genuinely leaves the amount to judgment.
- Soda and cream of tartarOne teaspoon soda with two teaspoons cream of tartar is homemade baking powder in the usual 1:2 proportion, a common household practice while commercial powders were still coming into general use. Roughly 3 to 4 teaspoons of modern baking powder will stand in for it. Sift the two dry chemicals through the flour thoroughly or the dumplings will taste soapy in patches.
- SaltNone is called for, which is common in bare period ingredient lists, and the dumplings are headed for a seasoned stew. If they are going into a sweet fruit mixture, a teaspoon of salt in the flour is worth adding.
- The hinge: work it as little as possiblePotato dough turns gluey with handling. Combine until it just holds, then stop; the tenderness the potato is there to provide is lost with kneading.
- Boiling themDrop or lay the pieces into liquid at a bare simmer, cover, and leave the lid on 12 to 15 minutes for pieces about 2 inches across. A hard boil breaks them up and lifting the lid halfway through gives you a dense center.
- YieldA pound of flour with 2 cups of potato makes a large batch, enough dumplings for 8 to 10 servings. Halve it for a family pot.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1878), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by some 250 Virginia housekeepers, prints its recipes much as they were handed over, initials and all: "Mrs. E.W." expected another experienced cook to know how wet a dumpling paste should be and wasted no words on it. The potato in the dough is the interesting part. Boiled potato holds water and interferes with gluten, so it gives a soft, moist crumb and stretches expensive white flour with something cheap and abundant, which is why potato appears in period bread, biscuit and dumpling doughs alike. The soda-and-cream-of-tartar pairing dates the recipe as much as the language does: commercial baking powder existed by the 1870s, yet this cook was still measuring out the alkali and the acid separately at home.