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Hundun
馄饨húntun / wan4 tan1say WON-ton
Clouds floating in broth.
AArchaeological or primary sourceFamily A · East Asian wheat-wrapper
About
Thin square wrappers folded loosely around pork or shrimp and served in broth. Tang-dynasty wontons were excavated at Turpan alongside jiaozi.
Tastes of
- pork
- shrimp
- clear broth
- spring onion
Texture
- silky, trailing skin
How to eat it
Spoon up with broth and noodles; the frilly skin should slip down easily.
When
Everyday; Winter Solstice in Jiangnan.
Did you know Sichuan calls them chaoshou, "folded hands"; Fujian calls them bianshi.
History
Tang wontons excavated at Turpan
Where
- OriginChina · country · Han
Sources
This entry is drawn from the World Dumpling Atlas, §6.1, the project's source report. Its grade, A archaeological or primary source, says how far that has been checked against a primary source. How grading works.
Related
Pork hundun (wontons) in clear soup
How to fold: Crescent pleat
1 Filling in the middle of the round
2 Fold in half and pinch the centre shut
3 Make small pleats on the front edge only
4 The pleats curve it into a crescent
Placeholder diagram. The atlas's illustrated fold animations will replace it.
Ingredients for 4
Filling
Wrappers
Soup (per bowl)
To serve
Method
- Put the pork, ginger, rice wine, soy sauce, salt, sugar and pepper in a bowl.
- Stir hard in one direction, adding the water a spoonful at a time, until the mixture is sticky and springy (about 5 minutes). · timer 5 min
- Fold in the spring onion and sesame oil.
- Put a small teaspoon of filling in the middle of a wrapper and wet the edges with water.
- Fold into a triangle and press the edges flat to seal, pushing out the air.
- Bring the two long corners together under the filling, dab with water and press to make an ingot shape. Repeat with the rest.
- Divide the soup seasonings (not the stock) between four bowls.
- Boil the wontons in plenty of water, stirring once, until they float, then 1–2 minutes more. · timer 4 min
- Pour hot stock or cooking water into each bowl, add the wontons with a slotted spoon and serve, with chilli oil if you like.
Notes. Hundun (馄饨) is the northern and Jiangnan name; Cantonese speakers say wonton (云吞) and Sichuan cooks call them chaoshou (抄手). Tang-dynasty examples have been excavated at Astana near Turpan, so the parcel is very old. Shanghai "big wontons" add blanched greens (shepherd's purse or bok choy) to the pork and use a larger wrapper; Cantonese wontons are mostly shrimp with some pork, in egg wrappers, often served over thin noodles. Using the starchy cooking water as the soup is a thrifty home habit; good chicken stock is richer. Uncooked wontons freeze well; cook from frozen.
Written for the atlas from several sources, cross-checked: Shanghai Wonton Soup (上海大馄饨), Maggie Zhu (Omnivore's Cookbook); Cantonese Wonton Noodle Soup, The Woks of Life (Leung family); Shortcut Wonton Soup Base, The Woks of Life (Leung family). Not yet kitchen-tested.
The tagline and story are editorial; facts trace to the atlas research. History sources are from the atlas and not yet independently checked.
Family A
