Apple dumplings
As we’ve seen, apples were a popular food for colonial Americans, and this is another way they made their impact on the colonial diet. Apple dumplings were dough cases filled with apple and spices, bound in a cloth, and boiled. Once cooked, one side would be cut open and butter and sugar would be added to the filling before it was served.
Boiling dumplings, and in fact boiling a lot of different foods, was very common in colonial America. This was because hearths, and even open fires, were very temperamental, making baking anything consistently very difficult. It wasn’t until accurate ovens became more commonplace that baked dumplings were the norm.