Xiaolongbao (Shanghai Soup Dumplings)

Variations

• The jelly is a phase change, and panna cotta gives the three numbers. That page sets gelatine out as three temperatures: it dissolves around 50°C, sets only below about 15°C, and melts again at body temperature. Xiaolongbao uses all three in order. The stock is reduced and the skin's collagen becomes gelatine; chilled, it sets firm enough to be chopped and handled as a solid ingredient; six minutes of steam takes it past 50°C and it is soup again. At no point is any liquid poured into the filling.
• It puts the water in on purpose, and puts it in as a solid. Wrapping and sealing opens by saying that what bursts a dumpling is almost always water in the filling, and mandu repeats it — wringing the tofu and sprouts dry is not seasoning, it is the first half of the order. Xiaolongbao puts stock inside a 5cm parcel. It gets away with it because while the parcel is being built that water is a solid, which is why keeping the filling cold is a condition rather than a convenience. Tuxum barak is the other end: it pours raw egg in as a liquid, and manages it by sealing first and filling last.
• Har gow names this dish: the same shrimp filling in a flour dough is a gyoza, and with rich stock set into it, a xiaolongbao. One filling, three wrappers, and the difference is the water.
• Crab xiaolongbao: Enriched with crabmeat and roe — a luxe version.
• Guantangbao: A large soup dumpling you sip through a straw.
• Shengjianbao: A pan-fried cousin with a crisp bottom.
• Chicken stock base: Use chicken instead of pork for a lighter jelly.

Tips

• The stock jelly is everything — it melts into the soup. Chill it firm and chop it in.
• Keep the filling cold so the jelly stays solid and is easy to wrap.
• Roll wrappers thin at the edge, slightly thicker in the center so they don't tear.
• Make tight pleats and seal the top firmly so the soup can't leak.
• Space them out while steaming so they don't stick, and eat them right away.
• Cold is a deadline, not a convenience. Pyeonyuk supplies the number: gelatine starts melting somewhere around 35°C. A hand is 33°C. A filling that has sat out for twenty minutes is already wet at the edges, and pleats made on it are pleats made on something that is moving. Take the filling from the fridge a little at a time and keep the board cold.
• Why the centre stays thicker. Once the jelly melts, the whole weight of the soup is sitting on one point of the base. The edge ends up ten or more pleats thick, so it has to be rolled thin; the centre has nothing overlapping it, so it has to be left thick. Rolled evenly, the edge is tough and the base leaks.
• Stop at six minutes. Har gow says the same thing of its own wrapper — it cooks fast and after that it only goes on absorbing water, so a sagging or split dumpling has almost always been oversteamed. Here there is a second reason: the soup inside is boiling and pushing outward (steaming).
• Space them out because a stuck one tears. Tear the side lifting it off and all the soup goes with it. Line the basket with paper or cabbage leaf, and serve them the moment they are done (serving temperature).