Xiao Long Bao

Where This Goes Wrong

Keep the filling cold. Warm aspic softens and the dumplings become impossible to pleat.

Do not overfill. A heaped teaspoon looks stingy and is exactly right — more and the base tears in the steamer.

Freeze uncooked dumplings on a tray, then bag them. Steam from frozen for 11 minutes.

How to Make Xiao Long Bao

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1. Blanch the pork skin for 5 minutes, drain and scrape clean. Simmer it with the water, ginger, spring onion and wine for 2½ hours until the liquid is sticky between your fingers.

   Mark done Start 5 min timer

2. Strain into a shallow tray and refrigerate until set firm, at least 4 hours. Chop the set aspic into small dice.

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3. Mix the pork with the soy, wine, sugar, sesame oil, ginger, spring onion and white pepper, stirring vigorously in one direction for 3 minutes until sticky and paste-like.

   Mark done Start 3 min timer

4. Fold in the diced aspic gently and refrigerate the filling for 30 minutes.

   Mark done Start 30 min timer

5. For the dough, stir the boiled water into the flour with chopsticks, then the cold water, and knead 8 minutes to a smooth, firm dough. Rest, covered, 30 minutes.

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6. Roll the dough into a rope and cut into 24 pieces. Roll each into an 8 cm circle, thin at the edge and thicker in the middle.

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7. Place a heaped teaspoon of filling in the centre, then pleat around the rim, gathering and twisting the pleats into a spiral, and pinch the top closed.

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8. Line a bamboo steamer with cabbage leaves or paper, space the dumplings 2 cm apart, and steam over vigorously boiling water for 8 minutes.

   Mark done Start 8 min timer

9. Serve immediately with black vinegar and ginger. Warn everyone to bite a small hole first and drink the soup before eating the rest.

   Mark done

Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.

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Why It Works

The soup is not injected — it is a rich, gelatine-heavy stock set solid, diced and mixed into the raw pork, which liquefies in the steamer. The wrapper is rolled thin at the edges and left thicker at the centre so the base can hold the weight of hot liquid without splitting.

Storage and Reheating

Best straight from the steamer. Uncooked dumplings freeze for 2 months; cooked ones lose their soup and are not worth keeping.

Ingredient Swaps

• Out of spring onions? A small regular onion, finely sliced, or a few chives stirred in at the end both cover the job.
• If you only have ground ginger, a quarter-teaspoon for each tablespoon of fresh is the ratio usually given; it tastes warmer and less bright than the fresh root.

Serving Xiao Long Bao

• Black vinegar with ginger shreds, the only correct dip
• Jasmine or oolong tea
• Blanched greens

Still Wondering?

Xiao Long Bao Nutrition Facts

Per serving, an approximate calculation from the ingredient list. Treat it as a rough guide: weights that include bone are counted as if all of it were eaten, so the figures run high; an ingredient listed without an amount is not counted, so the figures run low; part of the energy comes from foods, or weights per item, with no recorded source. The calories include 1 g of alcohol a serving, which is not part of the protein, carbohydrate or fat. How the figures are worked out.

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