Dumplings, as defined in a standard English dictionary, fall in two main categories: these are either "piece[s] of dough, sometimes filled, that are cooked in liquid such as water or soup" or alternatively "sweetened dough wrapped around fruit, such as an apple, baked and served as a dessert." More generally, dumplings may be any of a wide variety of dishes, both sweet and savoury, that are not necessarily dough-based. There are varieties of dumplings made from bread, potatoes, or matzoh meal, with or without filling. Dumplings are made from balls of dough, crumbled bread, or mashed potatoes.

Alternatively, they may be fashioned as small parcels of food encased in dough, batter, pastry, or even edible leaves. Once the filling is put inside the ball or is encased in a pocket, dumplings usually undergo further treatment by boiling, steaming, simmering, frying, or baking. Before the discovery of the New World dumplings did not contain potatoes, but instead were typically made with meat, fish, or sweets.

Savoury dumplings made from balls of dough are part of traditional British and Irish cuisine. The simplest dumplings are made from twice the weight of self raising flour to suet, bound together by cold water to form a dough. Balls of this dough are dropped into a bubbling pot of stew or soup, or into a casserole.

They sit, partly submerged in the stew, and expand as they are half-boiled half-steamed for ten minutes or so. The cooked dumplings are airy on the inside and moist on the outside. The dough may be simply flavoured with salt, pepper and herbs, or the dough balls may have a filling such as cheese pressed into their centre.

The Norfolk dumpling is not made with fat, but from flour and raising agent. Cotswold dumplings call for the addition of breadcrumbs and cheese, and the balls of dough may be rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, rather than cooked in a soup or stew.

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