Xiaolongbao

Ingredients

Skin aspic (pi dong)

• 400 gpork skin, scraped clean of fat
• 1pork trotter, split
• 1.5 litreswater
• 3 slicesginger
• 2spring onions
• 2 tbspShaoxing wine

Filling

• 400 gpork shoulder, minced, about 30% fat
• 20 gginger, grated
• 2spring onions, finely chopped
• 1.5 tbsplight soy sauce
• 1 tbspShaoxing wine
• 1 tspsugar
• ½ tspground white pepper
• 1 tspsalt
• 300 gcold set aspic, finely diced

Dough

• 300 gplain flour
• 150–160 mlwater, half boiling and half cold
• ¼ tspsalt

To serve

• Fine julienne of young ginger
• Zhenjiang black vinegar

Directions

1. Blanch the pork skin and trotter for 5 minutes, drain, scrape off every trace of fat from the underside of the skin, then simmer with the water, ginger, spring onion and wine for 3 hours until the liquid is sticky between the fingers.
2. Strain, chill overnight until it sets to a firm, sliceable jelly, then chop it very finely; this jelly is what melts into soup inside the dumpling.
3. Beat the minced pork with the ginger, soy, wine, sugar, pepper and salt, stirring in one direction for 3 minutes until sticky, then fold in the diced aspic and the spring onion and refrigerate 30 minutes.
4. Mix the boiling water into the flour first, then the cold water and salt, and knead 10 minutes to a smooth, firm dough. Rest, covered, 30 minutes. This part-scalded dough is strong enough to hold soup but stays tender.
5. Roll into ropes, cut 10 g pieces and roll each into a 7–8 cm round with a distinctly thicker centre; the thick centre carries the weight, the thin rim takes the pleats.
6. Cradle a wrapper in your palm, spoon in a heaped teaspoon of cold filling and pleat the edge, rotating as you go, aiming for 16–18 even pleats and twisting the top closed into a small knot.
7. Set the finished dumplings on squares of baking paper or on carrot slices in a bamboo steamer, well spaced; they swell and will fuse if crowded.
8. Steam over vigorously boiling water for 8 minutes with the lid slightly ajar so no condensation drips and softens the tops. The dumplings are done when the skins turn translucent and you can see broth sloshing inside.
9. Serve immediately in the steamer with ginger and black vinegar. Eat by lifting a dumpling to a spoon, nipping the side, drinking the soup first, then eating the rest; the broth is hot enough to burn.

Technique

• The soup is not poured in. It is aspic, chopped cold into the filling, which melts during steaming. Adding liquid directly guarantees a burst dumpling.
• Nanxiang xiaolongbao, from the town outside Shanghai, uses a fully unleavened dough; the puffier versions found elsewhere use a slightly leavened one. Both are defended fiercely.
• Keep everything cold, work in small batches and steam as soon as they are folded. Warm filling melts early and leaks through the base.
• Freeze uncooked on a tray, then bag; steam from frozen with 3 extra minutes.

Substitutions

• No pork skin? Use 2 split trotters, or set a strong stock with 8 g gelatine leaf per 500 ml, which works but has less body.
• Crab roe and crab meat added to the filling makes xiefen xiaolongbao, the luxury Shanghai version.

Variations

• Tangbao are the large, straw-sipped soup dumplings of Huaiyang cuisine, a related but distinct thing.
• Shengjianbao use a leavened dough, are pan-fried and also contain soup.

History

Soup dumplings whose broth-filled center comes from a specific technique: aspic, a jellied stock made by simmering pork skin and bones until they set into a gel when cooled, is chopped and mixed directly into the raw filling, then melts back into liquid soup once the dumpling steams. The dish is generally credited to Nanxiang, a town now part of Shanghai, where a restaurant called Nanxiang Mantun Dian began selling a soup-filled dumpling in the 1870s or 1880s, refining an earlier, larger steamed bun into the smaller, thinner-skinned, individually portioned form now standard. Eating xiaolongbao correctly, without losing the hot soup inside, is itself a small skill: most guidance recommends lifting it gently by the top knot, biting a small hole first to sip the broth, rather than biting into it whole.

Frequently asked questions

What is Xiaolongbao?

Xiaolongbao is a snack from China: shanghai-style steamed soup dumplings releasing hot pork broth with each bite. Soup dumplings whose broth-filled center comes from a specific technique: aspic, a jellied stock made by simmering pork skin and bones until they set into a gel when cooled, is chopped and mixed directly into the raw filling, then melts back into liquid soup once the dumpling steams. The dish is generally credited to Nanxiang, a town now part of Shanghai, where a restaurant called Nanxiang Mantun Dian began selling a soup-filled dumpling in the 1870s or 1880s, refining an earlier, larger steamed bun into the smaller, thinner-skinned, individually portioned form now standard. Eating xiaolongbao correctly, without losing the hot soup inside, is itself a small skill: most guidance recommends lifting it gently by the top knot, biting a small hole first to sip the broth, rather than biting into it whole.

How long does Xiaolongbao take to make?

Xiaolongbao takes 1 hr 30 min of preparation and 3 hr for the aspic plus 8 min steaming of cooking. The recipe makes about 32 dumplings, 4 servings. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Xiaolongbao?

Yes, within limits. No pork skin? Use 2 split trotters, or set a strong stock with 8 g gelatine leaf per 500 ml, which works but has less body. Crab roe and crab meat added to the filling makes xiefen xiaolongbao, the luxury Shanghai version.