← Map · China: Shanghai, Jiangnan and the East
Xiaolongbao
小笼包xiǎolóngbāosay SHYOW-long-bow
A broth hidden in a pleated purse.
DLDated textFamily A · East Asian wheat-wrapper
About
Soup dumpling from Nanxiang outside Shanghai, traditionally dated to around 1871. Pork filling is mixed with set pork-skin aspic that melts into soup as it steams. Listed as Chinese national intangible heritage (item 943, 2014).
Tastes of
- pork
- ginger
- rich broth
- black vinegar
Texture
- paper-thin skin
- molten soup
How to eat it
Lift onto a spoon, nip the skin, sip the soup, then eat with ginger and vinegar.
When
Breakfast and teahouse snack.
Did you know Makers judge them by their pleats; many shops aim for at least 14 folds.
History
Huang Mingxian, Rihuaxuan, c. 1871. First called "Nanxiang da rou mantou" (Shanghai gov't, SCMP). The single-inventor story is restaurant lore. Wuxi/Suzhou/Changzhou versions are sweeter and larger.
Where
- OriginNanxiang Jiading · Jiangnan · town or village · Han
Protected name
China national intangible cultural heritage · 传统面食制作技艺（南翔小笼馒头制作技艺） (Nanxiang xiaolongbao making)
Item 943, code Ⅷ-160 (extension item) · registered 2014
Area: Jiading District, Shanghai
Fourth national batch, 2014; Shanghai municipal list 2007 (Ⅷ-8). The ihchina.cn record dates the method to 1871 (Huang Mingxian, Rihuaxuan).
Sources
This entry is drawn from the World Dumpling Atlas, §6.2, the project's source report. Its grade, D dated text, says how far that has been checked against a primary source. How grading works.
Related
Pork xiaolongbao (Shanghai soup dumplings)
How to fold: Purse (gathered top)
1 Filling in the middle of the round
2 Lift the edge up all round
3 Pleat it as you turn, gathering to the top
4 Twist the top into a knot
Placeholder diagram. The atlas's illustrated fold animations will replace it.
Ingredients for 4
Aspic
Filling
Dough
To serve
Method
- Day 1. Cover the pork skin with cold water, bring to the boil, boil 3 minutes, then drain and rinse. · timer 3 min
- Scrape off any fat and hairs from the skin and cut it into thin strips.
- Put the skin in a clean pot with the 1 litre of water, ginger, spring onion, wine and star anise and bring to the boil.
- Simmer gently, partly covered, until the skin is very soft and the liquid is cloudy and lightly sticky. · wait 2 hours
- Strain, discarding the solids (or blitz the skin back in for a firmer jelly), add the salt and pour into a shallow dish.
- Cool, then refrigerate until firmly set, ideally overnight. · wait 8 hours
- Day 2. Soak the sliced ginger and spring onion in the hot water, then strain and cool the flavoured water. · timer 10 min
- Stir the pork in one direction, adding the ginger-onion water a little at a time until absorbed and the meat is sticky.
- Stir in the soy sauce, wine, sugar, salt, pepper and sesame oil.
- Chop 200 g of the set aspic into tiny dice and fold it into the meat. Chill the filling while you make the dough.
- Stir the boiling water into the flour and salt, then add the cold water and knead until smooth and elastic. · timer 10 min
- Cover the dough and rest it. · timer 30 min
- Roll the dough into a log and cut about 36 pieces of 12 g each, keeping them covered.
- Roll each piece into a round about 8-9 cm across, thinner at the edge than the centre.
- Put a heaped tablespoon (about 15 g) of cold filling in the centre of a wrapper.
- Pleat the rim all the way round, turning the dumpling as you go (aim for 14-18 folds), and twist the top closed.
- Set the dumplings on a steamer lined with parchment, cabbage leaves or a damp cloth, 2-3 cm apart.
- Steam over fiercely boiling water until the skins are translucent. · timer 9 min
- Serve at once with black vinegar and ginger threads. Lift each one gently onto a spoon, bite a small hole and sip the soup first.
Notes. The soup is set pork-skin aspic, which melts in the steamer; there is no shortcut to the overnight chilling unless you use powdered gelatine set in stock (an accepted modern shortcut, about 10 g per 500 ml stock, set 3-4 hours). A pressure cooker cuts the simmering to about 30 minutes. Nanxiang-style xiaolongbao use a thin, half-hot-water dough and plenty of soup; some Shanghai cooks add chicken or ham to the aspic. Crab-roe (xiefen) filling is the luxury autumn variant. Keep the filling cold and work in batches so the aspic does not melt before steaming.
Written for the atlas from several sources, cross-checked: Xiao Long Bao (Soup Dumplings), Elaine Luo (China Sichuan Food); 灌汤小笼包 内附猪皮冻详细做法 (soup xiaolongbao with pork-skin jelly), Yang's Food (Xiachufang). 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
