Dumpling - American Cuisine

American Cuisine

Several types of dumplings are popular in the United States. Bite-sized, hand-torn pieces of dough are cooked in boiling chicken broth along with a variety of vegetables to make the dish chicken and dumplings which is served as a thick soup. Dumplings are often used as part of the regionally popular Burgoo stew.

The baked dumpling is popular in American cuisine. These sweet dumplings are made by wrapping fruit, frequently a whole tart apple, in pastry, then baking until the pastry is browned and the filling is tender. As an alternative to simply baking them, these dumplings are surrounded by a sweet sauce in the baking dish, and may be basted during cooking. Popular flavours for apple dumplings include brown sugar, caramel, or cinnamon sauces.

Boiled dumplings are made from flour to form a dough. A pot of boiling chicken or turkey broth is used to cook this dough. The thickness and the size of the dumplings is at the cook's discretion. The size does not affect the taste but the thickness does. It is optional to serve with the meat in the dish or on the side.

Dumplings can be made with eggs, milk, baking powder or even yeast, or just from flour and water. Rolled dumplings are rolled thin and cut into small pieces for cooking, while dropped dumplings are formed into small balls.

Tortilla dumplings are made by adding tortillas and fillings to a boiling pot of stock. Popular varieties of Southern dumplings include chicken dumplings, turkey dumplings, strawberry dumplings, apple dumplings, ham dumplings, and even butter-bean dumplings.

In the Allegheny Mountains of central Pennsylvania, pot pie is rolled dough made from flour and broth (usually ham), cut into squares, and boiled with the meat in the broth, usually with potatoes.