Mysterious dumpling problem

[greyeaglem]

This is the second time this has happened to me. The incidents were some years apart and so not a priority on my solving list. The other day, I made chicken dumpling soup. I make the dumplings with whole eggs, all purpose flour, baking soda and salt. I used 8 eggs, about 1 tsp. soda, a pinch of salt and enough flour to make a dough a little bit looser than choux paste. I dropped the dumplings into the simmering soup and they turned out dark brown inside, white outside and doughy. I skimmed them out and re-did the process the next day with the same results. I thought maybe the soup hadn't been hot enough the first time. I make these same dumplings the same way all the time and they're fine. Does anyone know what causes this? I really bugs me! I'm grateful for any light anyone can shed on this because it only happened once before and that was years (like 20) ago. The only difference between the last batch, which turned out fine, and this one was I used savory in the stock.

[oldschool1982]

greyeaglem,

I'm as stumped as you. The only thing I can figure is a bad egg maybe? This is the first time I've heard of this happening in my life. Sorry I couldn't be more help.

[thetincook]

Are you sure that you're supposed to use baking soda, and not baking powder?

When I make chinese style noodles, I add baking soda to the dough and it turns the dough a brownish yellow.

[chefbenjamin]

could have been the egg.

how many days old were they before you cooked them ?

Benjamin

[greyeaglem]

I don't know exactly how old the eggs were. They came in 3 days earlier, but I don't know how long the supplier had them in stock. I suspect it's the leavening agent. This is an old eastern European method of making dumplings and I learned it from an elderly cook I worked with at a school. Normally I would have used baking powder, but we didn't have any. I had made the same soup about three weeks ago the same way with no problems. Maybe I used too much soda. I just kind of shake it in as I don't measure anything for these dumpling. Thanks for everybody's help.