Shengjian Bao

Recipe #1: https://thewoksoflife.com/shanghai-pan-fried-pork-buns-shengjian-mantou/#recipe

• Substitutions:
  • Dry Sherry instead of Shaoxing wine.
  • Stir in 2 gelatin packets to 3 cups cold water, heat to a boil once dissolved, then add chicken bullion cubes according to the recipe on the box, 1 green onion, 2 Tbsp wine, a few ginger slices (or ginger paste).
  • 70% lean store-bought ground pork.
• 2021 notes:
  • Had about a 50% success rate at wrapping tightly the first time, second time was a total bust, third time was about 90% successful. Hand kneaded the dough for the full amount of time and carefully weighed out 30 equally sized balls of dough, maybe that's part of the reason.
  • Hard to tell when they are browned on the bottom.
  • Ultimately, really delicious though, pretty dang close to spot on.
• 2024 notes:
  • Cooking time is 25-30 minutes once they are all wrapped and ready to go.
  • Consistently have too much filling for how much dough I end up with, maybe because I'm underfilling them. Could 2x the dough and leave the filling ratio unchanged. Alternatively, could use left-over filling for 肉包 and 小笼包.
  • Could really use one of those little wooden tapered rolling pins
• 2025 notes:
  • Mix and measure ingredients the night before. Filling and dough both take longer to bring together than you would expect.
  • Aspic makes about 20% more than you need.
  • In 2025 I doubled the recipe and tripled the dough recipe. We had 18 people over, and made 52 SJB, but with tons of leftover filling and dough.
  • Can't use a larger pan than our small cast iron because the burners are not wide enough.