Ma's Old Prairie Dumplings

This recipe is from my great-great-grandmother.

She was married to a sharecropper in the plains/prairies

out around Muleshoe, Texas.

Times were hard back then ... real hard.

If all you had on hand

was some fresh kill meat, some flour, and salt ...

and access to water ...

you could have one FINE meal.

(As my Mammie would later say ... a little butter don't hurt none.)

My point is ... check out how simple this is ...

and check out how DELICIOUS it is, too.

I suppose you could do this with rabbit

or squirrel ... like my GGGM probably did ... or whatever

other kinds of "fresh kill meats" y'all eat out there.

But the only meats we eat around here

are mainly beef and chicken ...

occasionally some deer and lamb ... 

so my dumpling meal will center around chicken.

First thing you do is boil your meat

in a large stewpot.

Tonight I only did three breasts.

Place meat on plate to cool. 

Keep the broth/water.

In a large bowl, cover the bottom with salt.

Add hot water to bowl, and dissolve salt.

You want it salty.

Tonight I used 1 1/2 cups water ...

if I make a larger batch I go with 2 cups.

There is no strict measuring.

The more water you have

the more flour you'll need ...

and the more dough you'll make.

Then I open up my sack of flour and start pouring
into the salt water.

Nothing in this recipe is measured.

Just enough flour to make a dough.

I use a fork to stir.

Until it gets crumbly and lumpy and moisty.

Then I reach in there and start using my hands ...

and blend, blend, blend ...

until I can pull a good-sized ball out of there.

I sprinkle flour on my countertop ... and roll it out ...

... and cut slices with a butter knife.

Then I hold out the palm of my hand

and stack as many as I can on there ...

And plop 'em one by one into the hot broth ...

You'll know if the broth is hot enough

by seeing the dumplings immediately float to the top.

Once you get all of your dough rolled out and cut ...

and into the broth ...

time to hand shred the cooled meat, and toss it in there.

Now this is where I add to the original recipe just a tad ...

I go ahead and give it a good shake of black pepper,

and add a half a stick of real butter.

I stir it real good, and shut the heat off ... and cap it.

And start cleaning my mess, and taking more pictures.

After about an hour of farting around ... the dumplings look like this.

The longer it sits, the better it gets.

Enjoy!!

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We sure did :)

(Edited to add final picture.)

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