---
title: "Dumpling Calculator: Dough, Filling and Times | Weekend Wok"
description: "How much dough and filling for 40 dumplings? Wrapper flour and water, filling per dumpling, salted cabbage, boil, pan-fry and steam times, and freezing."
url: https://weekendwok.me/dumpling-calculator/
---

Folding night

# Dumpling calculator

Say how many dumplings you want. You get the wrapper dough (or packs to buy), the filling for each dumpling and in total, the cabbage to salt, and batches and times for boiling, pan-frying and steaming.

## 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.

Printable recipe cards

Recipe sites and cooking-class newsletters often ask for an email address before they send a printable recipe card or a discount code. A temporary inbox from [CleanTempMail](https://cleantempmail.com/) receives it with no sign-up and empties itself after three days, so the follow-up mail never reaches your real inbox.

## Freezing a batch

1. Dust a tray with flour or line it with baking paper. Set the uncooked dumplings on it so they don't touch.
2. Freeze until hard, then tip them into freezer bags or boxes, pressing out the air. Label with the filling and the date.
3. 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](https://www.fsis.usda.gov/food-safety/safe-food-handling-and-preparation/food-safety-basics/safe-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](https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/safe-minimum-internal-temperatures): shrimp cooked until the flesh is pearly and opaque.
- FoodSafety.gov, [Cold Food Storage Chart](https://www.foodsafety.gov/food-safety-charts/cold-food-storage-charts): 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](https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/) (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](https://weekendwok.me/#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.