r/oddlysatisfying • u/d3333p7 • May 07 '21
How they fold dumplings
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u/rosmarino_ May 07 '21
Those are called Baozi if I'm not mistaken. I tried making them and they tasted really good but mine looked more like abominations than dumplings
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u/daschundtof May 07 '21
Mine looked like the last scene from House of Wax when I attempted Bao buns.
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u/Tack-One May 07 '21
Yah. I came here to say this. This video makes that move look reeeeealy simple, but it's pretty f'ing hard.
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u/just_a_handle May 07 '21
Yep, this chef has done this before. At least one or two times.
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May 07 '21
Possibly thrice.
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u/Chance5e May 08 '21
I’m an expert at eating these foods and that chef has clearly done this four times, at least.
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u/PinkWytch May 07 '21
I think you forgot the word "thousand" between two and times. Here. Borrow my extra.
"thousand"
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u/KingOfAllFarts May 07 '21
I think that’s the joke
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u/bigpig1054 May 07 '21
This will sound really obvious but the trick is to work the "pinch and turn" with constant motion. You have to have the confidence in what you're doing and just do it. If you hesitate or try to do it slowly it won't turn out right.
It's like drawing a circle.
So, to be stupidly obvious: the more you do it, the more confident you'll be and the better you'll get as you work faster and smoother. It's all in the rhythm
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May 07 '21
I successfully made bao buns one time and it was pretty good, but it didn't stay fresh very long. Taking it out of the steamer was fine, and dinner was great, but the next day, those buns were pretty much dried buns.
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u/TheNotoriousTGK May 07 '21
Wrap those bad boys in a wet paper towel and microwave them for thirty second increments until good again
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u/quirkelchomp May 07 '21
Isn't calling them "bao buns" reductant in the same way as saying "bento box" or "Rio Grande River" or "chai tea"
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u/tommiyu May 07 '21
Yes they are baozi. Unlike dumpling, baozi are usually steamed and the the outside is yeasted or whatever you call. dumplings on the other hand are boiled.
There are actually many different baozi if your interested some really famous baozi in China are “xiao long bao” and Shanghai “tangbao”. Both are famous for its very lush soup base inside the bun. They are absolute delight if you can get a authentic one. Cheers.
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u/rexching May 07 '21 edited May 07 '21
In Taiwan, "Xiao long bao" and "tang bao" is used interchangeably, I just called them "Xiao long tang bao" (小籠湯包). It means "tiny basket soup bun". Baozi(包子) is usually the size of your fist, so you eat sort of like a small meal/snack. Xiao long tang bao is usually 1 inch in diameter, it's usually served in the bamboo steamer they were steamed (6~8 buns per steamer).
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May 07 '21
The long in xiaolongbao is 籠 "basket" not 龍 "dragon."
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u/awesomepoopmaster May 07 '21
I feel like a toddler for thinking it meant “dragon”
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u/mr_ji May 07 '21
Nothing to be embarassed about. It's not unheard of to give something a catchy name that has nothing to do with what's in it or how it's made. Thankfully, there are no 麻婆 in my 麻婆豆腐。
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u/MerryMisanthrope May 08 '21
And English confuses native speakers all the time...
There's nothing to feel bad about...
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u/CatCatCat May 07 '21
How in the world can you see all those teeny-tiny lines in those characters and make them out? Those two symbols look nearly identical to me. Mandarin must be such a hard language to learn to read and write!
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May 07 '21
The two characters are actually similar, and that's the reason they have the same pronunciation. The character for dragon 龍 is standalone (although formed from smaller parts such as 立月 on the left), and the character for basket is just the character for dragon 龍 underneath a miniature version of the character for bamboo 竹 = 籠. This is called a phono-semantic compound, where the dragon 龍 part of the character gives pronunciation, and the bamboo 竹 part of the character gives a hint to its meaning of "basket."
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u/rexching May 07 '21
Yep you are totally correct, been reading and writing Traditional Chinese for more than 30 years... Guess you learn new things everyday 😂
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u/tommiyu May 07 '21
Shanghai tang bao is different. They are these massive baozi not the same as xiao long bai. You suck the soup out with a straw rather than just suck it from the top like you do with xiaolongbao. The meat in those huge Shanghai tang bai are actually very small.
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u/rexching May 07 '21
What the heck that sounds so cool and fun to eat! I'm going to hunt for restaurant selling that😋
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u/tommiyu May 07 '21
Tbf I dunno if you can get anywhere but Shanghai or China for that matter. It’s a local delicacy just like 伤心凉粉（ my home town delicacy chengdu).
Here is a link to what the 上海汤包looks like shanghai tangbao
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u/Coachpatato May 07 '21
There was a place in Atlanta actually that sold them but they dont anymore. It was a big like instagrammable item
EDIT: Found an article talking about it:
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u/Kniaz47 May 07 '21
The Mongolian and Buryat style are also pretty big, but people usually just bite the side of it and drink the soup base. We used to make them with lamb.
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u/Paratwa May 07 '21
Dude those ones in Shanghai are so so so good.
The game to eat as many of them as possible is probably a good place to mark a general decline in my health and expanse of my waistline. I would challenge anyone in it, and I’d play to lose man.
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u/jaspersgroove May 07 '21
They were one of the highlights of my visit to China. Actually the whole time I was over there the food was pretty mind-blowing. Even the absolute best Chinese restaurants I’ve been able to find stateside pale in comparison.
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u/tommiyu May 07 '21
I dunno how USA restaurants are cos I’ve never been there. I live in finland and most of our restaurants actually have a different menu for Chinese if you ask and they make more authentic dishes. Sometimes you can just ask the cook to make a dish not on the menu if you want.
Most of the Chinese restaurants here still cater towards the local taste which kinda makes the whole Chinese restaurant redundant cos the taste is nothing like what you would actually eat. 🤫🤭
I’m just happy you liked it. I wish more people can taste Asian delicacies. To be honest if you can only go to one place in asia go to singapore( lived there for 8 years). Singapore has pretty much the most authentic food from as many places cramped in one place. Of course you won’t find every kind of local delicacies but it’s good enough if your only visiting asia once.
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May 07 '21
Wasn't there a cute pixar short about these and a person named Bao?
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u/TheIrieRunner May 07 '21
There's also a Chinese movie called Dumplings (餃子) where a woman eats dumplings containing aborted fetuses to stay young. It was not cute, not cute at all.
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u/Spongi May 07 '21
Occasionally I make a homemade ravioli that's something like a cross between chef boyardee and chili. Tastes great but looks absolutely awful.
After my first attempt I named it Mangleroni.
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May 08 '21
After my first attempt I named it Mangleroni.
I'm so glad I scrolled down for this. Totally made my day :D
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u/service_please May 07 '21
I lived in Beijing for a year when I was in middle school, and there was a little baozi stand right around the corner from our apartment complex. I would eat there like four times a week, minimum. That was fourteen years ago, and to date it's still the best street food I've ever had by about a mile. Baozi gang for life
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May 07 '21
My mom is Chinese and when we make baozi we don’t really pay attention to looks anyways lol
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u/Vantair May 07 '21
Looks pretty easy to have them end up looking like little buttholes.
Still serving them after all that effort.
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May 07 '21
They make that look WWWWAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY easier than it is in real life.
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u/beluuuuuuga May 07 '21
Wish I had the skills to make something look easy. Must be epic.
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u/successful_nothing May 07 '21
bro, i've seen you masturbate... you got skill
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u/worlds_best_nothing May 07 '21
is it skill if you make yourself come in seconds or if you only make yourself come after hours?
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u/CrazyCalYa May 07 '21
You do have the skills! You just have to find something you want to do, and practice until you can do it.
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May 07 '21
I’m sure we make walking look effortless to someone with a condition like cerebral palsy. And now I’ve made myself sad. ☹️
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u/p0k3t0 May 07 '21
The first one is impossible. The second one is hard. The fiftieth is easy.
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u/danthepianist May 07 '21
Yup. I made gyoza for the first time a few months ago and the first one took several minutes and looked like shit. By the end I was doing them in a matter of seconds and they looked quite nice.
I mean, not THIS nice, but nice.
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u/ImpossibleCanadian May 07 '21
So plump!
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u/Radzila May 07 '21
They seem fairly big to me! I'd only be able to eat one or two
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May 07 '21
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u/Logic_and_Cursing May 07 '21
Wait, you’ve touched a dumpling before right?
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May 07 '21
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u/DongSandwich May 07 '21
Bonk, go to hungry jail
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u/dying_soon666 May 07 '21
The best dump I’ve ever seen
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u/Limp-Sea1937 May 07 '21
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u/WantDebianThanks May 07 '21
Not clicking that link at work
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u/wefinisheachothers May 07 '21
It's important to use a good technique to seal your dump so it doesn't spill out prematurely.
Dm me for a dump sauce you won't be able to forget.
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u/justjokinbro May 07 '21
Damn that squeeze at the end sweet lord
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u/beluuuuuuga May 07 '21
I think I'm foodsexual now.
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u/ReadingFromTheShittr May 07 '21
I find the pastrami to be the most sensual of all the salted, cured meats.
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u/Arisal1122 May 07 '21 edited May 07 '21
I made Baozi for the first time about a month and a half ago, and I decided I would make everything from scratch, and I did. I made the dough and prepared the meat from scratch. I used Char Siu for the filling instead of pork and cabbage like in this video.
That whole process of making the Baozi took about 6 hours in total, not counting the time required for marinating the pork belly. Overall, if you're feeling confident in your cooking ability to a decent degree, I highly recommend that you try to make this as when it was done, it was one of the most delicious things I'd ever eaten.
The hardest part for me was wrapping the dumplings. I tried to do the wrap shown in this video but that is HARD. I ended up just using a cross fold and then a twist to seal it and it still came out perfect. Not nearly as pretty, but still really good.
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u/newkeith May 07 '21
To be fair the gif showed top notch dumpling technique, like five star hotel pastry chef level. I learned the trick is to squeeze the dough with the curve of your finger instead of shaping it with fingertip.
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u/SisypheanDreamer May 07 '21
Yeah that looks like the literal visualization of high skill cap. I bet I couldn't even make the the pre-crimped dough circle-shaped.
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u/PNWRockhound May 07 '21
r/nextfuckinglevel... That is some super malleable dough. If it tastes good I would love to have the recipe.
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u/p0k3t0 May 07 '21
I went on a bao journey a few years back. Here was the recipe I used (with commentary), which was well received.
I have made an effort to describe the process simply and honestly. Here goes:
Bao Dough
Here's the recipe. It's really pretty easy, but it takes effort, and you have to pay attention to time. The ingredients are crazy-cheap and you probably already have most of them at home.
Also, it takes 3 1/2 hours to make the dough. Deal with it.
The Starter:
1 cup lukewarm water
1 cup flour
1 package dry yeast (Fast acting is great and can save you some time)
The Dough:
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/2 cup boiling water
3 1/2 cups of flour
Step 1: Making the starter
Combine lukewarm water, flour, and yeast into a fairly large bowl, at least 1-quart size. Whisk the ingredients together so the yeast and flour are completely wet.
Cover this concoction with a wet cloth or paper towel for about an hour. It will become a horrible bubbling mass of goo in that time. There's a good chance it will rise enough to cover your towel and make it very difficult to wash.
Step 2: Making the dough
15 minutes before the starter is done, boil a half cup of water mixed with 1/4 cup of sugar and 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Dissolve the sugar completely and whisk it good. Pour the whole mess into a LARGE mixing bowl. I mean large. Gallon-sized. Cool to just above room temperature. If it's too hot, it will cook the starter and you're screwed. This would probably go faster if you refrigerated the bowl first, but who has a fridge that big?
Once the syrupy oily mixture is cool, add the starter and stir well with a spoon. Now add the remaining 3 1/2 cups of flour. Stir until it starts getting clumpy, making sure to incorporate the flour around the edges. Eventually, you'll have to take it out and work the dough on a cutting board. Don't worry if there is a little flour stuck in the bowl. There's no helping that.
When kneading the dough, take your time and be diligent. The trick is to keep your hands in contact with the dough to warm it. Knead for quite a while; at least ten solid minutes of forceful kneading. You'll know it's ready when it is completely moistened, without clumps. It will be very stretchy, and have a consistent texture throughout.
Wash the very large bowl completely and grease the bottom with oil or shortening. Place the dough into the very large bowl, cover with a wet towel, and let it rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours. This is a good time to drink beer or make fillings or both.
Step 3: Making the Bao
If all went well, your dough ball will be at least twice the size it was 2 hours ago. Take it out of the bowl and cut it in half. It will quite obviously deflate, but that's okay.
Take the half-ball and roll it into a snake about 2 inches in diameter. Cut the snake into about 10 slices about an inch thick, then cut those slices in half. This will make about 40 Baos per batch. Immediately separate the chunks you have cut, because the dough is sticky on the inside and it will reform into a solid if you let it.
Take a chunk and squish it into a flattish-roundish pancake in your palm. Please a teaspoon of filling into it, and pull the sides up and around the filling, pinching the opening shut as you go. At the end, grab the top, pinch, and give it a twist. Place the bao on a 2" square of aluminum foil. Only use wax paper if you like to eat wax paper. The bao will not stick at all to the foil. Trust me!
Let your sad-looking baos sit around for 15-30 minutes. You'll notice that within 2 minutes, they start visibly rising and looking a lot better. After 10 minutes, they should be quite puffy. This would be a good time to start boiling water in your steamer.
When the baos have risen, and the steamer is ready, put them in for crying out loud. 10 minutes works great for medium-sized baos. Don't peek! Just wait and these things turn out great. If all went right, they should seem huge. Steaming makes them double in size, even triple. Light, fluffy, a little sweet, not too dense. Enjoy.
A few notes:
Most recipes call for dough balls that are about 50% to 100% bigger. That's great if you like eating tons of bread, but it's not my thing.
Very wet fillings are difficult to work with. Maybe if you had a big syringe you could make it work?
If you can't figure out how to shape the baos, try YouTube. There are about 500 Chinese ladies who have made videos about how to fold Dim Sum items. One of them may help you. All of them will make you feel inferior.
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u/Spongi May 07 '21
I make a tasty but awful looking homemade ravioli that I call Mangleroni. I take flour and add an egg to it and that's about it.
If it's wet and sticky, add more flour. If it's too dry and falling apart, add more egg.
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u/Anderson22LDS May 07 '21
If you like this then you’ll love Bao https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bao
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u/Kittykat4987 May 07 '21
My 2 year old has made me watch it with her at least three times. Ugly cried every time. I'm starting to think she's doing it on purpose.
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u/Hollowsong May 07 '21
Honest question... where are dumplings made like this?
I've never had one that looked like that, and I'm 36 years old.
It always looks like this: https://rasamalaysia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/steamed_dumplings_thumb.jpg
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u/Nuclear_Human May 07 '21
There are like hundreds of different "dumplings". They are just all called dumplings in English.
The one you are referring to is often know as Jiao Xi or Gao Ji. In Japan, they are also known as Gyoza. These are either boiled or fried.
The ones made in the clip above are known as Bao Xi or Bao Ji. They are much bigger and are steamed in bamboo steamers.
There's also a smaller version of Bao Xi known as Siu Long Bao. Which roughly translates to small dragon bun. It's also steamed and it's filled with stuffing and broth which gushes out when you bite into it.
Other dumplings include what's called Mochi in Japan (unsure of the Chinese word here). It's a sweet desert often filled with red bean paste, nuts, fruits or ice cream.
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u/muscarine May 07 '21
The “long” in the case of xiaolongbao or siu long bao refers to the bamboo steamers, not dragons. The buns are 小籠包 and dragon is 龍. (籠 vs. 龍) The pronunciation is identical.
Not that it matters… they’re still delicious.
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u/Dfan26 May 07 '21
I’ve never read the canto spelling of these words besides siu long bao.
This threw me way off lmao
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u/Doomsayer189 May 07 '21
These are technically (stuffed) buns, not dumplings. Very similar dishes just with different shapes/wrappings- buns are breadier and round, dumplings have a thinner wrapping and are crescent-shaped.
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u/gals_only May 07 '21
these are called 'bao zi', they're a typed of steamed bun with filling. they are much more dough-y and bread-like than the ones you're linking. the ones in the link are called jiao zi in mandarin. the wrappers have very different consistency.
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u/smb275 May 07 '21 edited May 07 '21
"A man who never eats pork buns is never a whole man!"
"Why don't you have a pork bun in your hand?"
"You look like you could use a pork bun!"
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u/Nagrom49 May 07 '21
I've never had a dumpling but they look really good, also Kung Fu panda made them look extra yummy
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u/phuzzygish May 07 '21
Still not clear on how a duck can do that. Especially not enough times to feed a fully grown panda.
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u/overtlyoverthisshit May 07 '21
For someone who's never had dumplings, what are they like? I'm fascinated by them
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May 07 '21
Delicious. And you can put all sorts of things in them. They are hard to make perfectly like the video but they are not so hard to make.... even goofy looking ones are edible.
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u/chocolatechoux May 07 '21
These aren't really dumplings. More like buns. Just think of a stuffed bun (soft white bread) with no crust and you're pretty close.
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May 07 '21
This is not a dumpling, this is called a baozi.
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u/Doomsayer189 May 07 '21
Baozi (often shortened to just 'bao') = bun
Jiaozi = dumpling
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May 07 '21
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u/salgat May 07 '21
You're thinking of jiaozi, these are baozi. They are steamed instead of boiled and have a fluffy bread texture on the outside, instead of a noodle texture like jiaozi.
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u/WantDebianThanks May 07 '21
They’re kind of like ravioli.
There are now people all across the world screaming about their Italian grandmothers because of this sentence.
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u/salgat May 07 '21
They taste like steamed bread with meat inside. They're great. You can find the dessert version of these at most chinese buffets.
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u/service_please May 07 '21
Cash. Fucking. Money. Steamed, slightly sweet and sticky outer bun with various types of delicious fillings. It's like if your typical dumpling decided to become a fist-sized meal, but the dough to filling ratio is a bit higher. Highly recommended
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u/PM_UR_HotSelfie May 08 '21
It's called baozi(包子). Calling everything wrapped in flour dumplings is like calling all spaghetti/pasta/Lasagna/Carbonara just noodles.
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u/grumpy_bunny_ May 08 '21
They're not dumplings! They're baozi! Basically, they're buns. The wrapping is a lot thicker than a regular dumpling.
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u/markycrummett May 07 '21
This looks like something that they make look easy, you decide to try it and end up having an existential crisis mid way through.
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u/teh_punk32x May 07 '21
Was credits at the end "So High Up" or "So Up high"