Dumpling Calculator: Dough, Filling and Times

Order No. 0140 dumplings

Pork and cabbage dumplings

The classic: juicy pork with sweet, squeezed cabbage. Standard size: 8–9 cm (3¼–3½ in) wrappers.

Dumplings: 40standard
Filling each: 14 g10 g of dough
Filling in all: 560 gmixed and chilled

Wrapper dough · makes about 44 wrappers

Plain (all-purpose) flourabout 2½ cups300 gPlus a little extra for dusting.
Water, room temperature½ cup + 2 tbsp150 ml · 150 gFor steaming or pan-frying, use just-boiled water for half of it: a softer, more tender dough. Mind your fingers.
Salt¼ tsp2 g

Knead 5 minutes until smooth, cover and rest 30 minutes. Roll into a log, cut 44 pieces of about 10 g and roll each into a 8–9 cm (3¼–3½ in) circle, thinner at the edge.

Filling · 560 g for 40

Pork mince (ground pork), not too lean314 g
Napa cabbage, salted and squeezed157 g
Spring onions, finely chopped34 g
Fresh ginger, finely grated1 tbsp + ¼ tsp17 ml · 6.5 g
Soy sauce (light or all-purpose)1 tbsp + 2 tsp25 ml · 27 g
Shaoxing rice wine or dry sherry1 tbsp + ¼ tsp17 ml · 17 g
Toasted sesame oil1 tsp5.5 ml · 5 g
Ground white pepper¼ tsp1.4 ml · 0.7 g

Salt and squeeze the cabbage

Finely chop about 225 g of napa cabbage, toss with ½ tsp salt (3.5 g) and leave for 15–20 minutes. Squeeze it hard in a clean tea towel, a handful at a time, until you have about 155 g. The salt draws out water so the filling doesn't go soggy; taste a cooked spoonful of filling before adding any more salt.

Cooking batches and times

Method	Batches	Fresh	Frozen
Boil	2 × 20	6–8 min	8–10 min
Pan-fry (potstickers)	3 × 14	8–10 min	10–12 min
Steam	4 × 12	8–10 min	12–15 min

Batches: about 20 in a large pot, 14 in a 26 cm (10 in) frying pan, 12 per 25 cm (10 in) steamer tier. Cook frozen dumplings straight from the freezer.

Done when

Pork or beef filling: 160 °F (71 °C) in the middle of a dumpling. Check one with a thermometer or cut it open.

How to use it

Enter how many dumplings you want, then pick a size, a filling and homemade or shop-bought wrappers. Homemade dough is two parts plain flour to one part water by weight, with a pinch of salt and about a tenth extra for rolling and the odd torn wrapper.

Sizes. A standard dumpling takes about 10 g of dough rolled to an 8–9 cm circle and 14 g of filling. If you are new to folding, start there: small ones are fiddly and large ones are harder to seal.

The cabbage. Salted cabbage gives up a lot of water, so the filling is measured after squeezing. Squeeze until it feels fairly dry rather than chasing an exact number; the starting weight on the ticket is a rough guide.

Taste safely. Never taste raw filling. Fry or microwave a teaspoon of it until cooked through, taste, then adjust the seasoning.

Freezing a batch

Dust a tray with flour or line it with baking paper. Set the uncooked dumplings on it so they don't touch.
Freeze until hard, then tip them into freezer bags or boxes, pressing out the air. Label with the filling and the date.
Cook straight from frozen, using the frozen times on the ticket. Thawed dumplings go soggy and stick together.

FoodSafety.gov's cold storage chart gives raw ground meat and mixtures made with it 3 to 4 months in the freezer for best quality; food kept frozen at 0 °F (−18 °C) stays safe, so those months are about taste and texture. In the fridge, raw ground meat keeps only 1 to 2 days, so fold the filling the day you make it.

Sources

USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Safe Minimum Internal Temperature Chart: ground meats 160 °F (71.1 °C), all poultry 165 °F (73.9 °C), fish and shellfish 145 °F (62.8 °C).
FoodSafety.gov, Cook to a Safe Minimum Internal Temperature: shrimp cooked until the flesh is pearly and opaque.
FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart: hamburger and other ground meats and mixtures of them, 1 to 2 days in the refrigerator and 3 to 4 months in the freezer; freezer times are for quality only, as food stored constantly at 0 °F (−18 °C) keeps safe indefinitely.
U.S. Department of Agriculture, FoodData Central (SR Legacy) weights: Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, enriched, bleached (FDC 168894), 1 cup = 125 g; Salt, table (FDC 173468), 1 tsp = 6 g; the soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, ginger, sugar, white pepper and cornflour weights listed in the sauce builder's sources.

Questions

Why do my dumplings burst when I boil them?

Usually too much filling, air trapped inside or edges that were not sealed. Press the air out as you pleat, keep the filling away from the edges and let the water bubble gently rather than hard once they are in.

Homemade or shop-bought wrappers?

Shop-bought round wrappers save a lot of time and suit pan-frying and steaming. Homemade dough rolls out thicker and chewier, which many people love for boiled dumplings. The calculator does both.

How do I know they are cooked?

The wrappers turn tender and slightly see-through and the filling feels firm. For meat or prawn fillings, check one with a thermometer: 160 °F (71 °C) for pork or beef, 165 °F (74 °C) for chicken and 145 °F (63 °C) for prawns.