Wow! Bao! An Exploration of Baozi
What are Baozi?
Baozi has long been a staple food that originated in Northern China and has since disseminated and taken new forms. They are a simple dish comprising of a steamed bread wrapping and filling. Despite the commonality of baozi, there is very little mention of them in historical documents. They have been lumped in with jiaozi due to their similar nature of a filling in a dough wrapping [2]. The main difference is that baozi wrapper dough is a flour-based, yeasted dough called mantou [9]. It is white in color due to the fine flour used and the intense kneading process [9]. Fillings of baozi can range from meat to sweetened red bean paste to soup. Most commonly, baozi are filled with minced pork mixed with sauce and green onion, which is a similar filling to the aforementioned jiaozi. Pork stuffed baozi are often eaten for breakfast or for a quick lunch [5].
While western markets are flooded with Cantonese (Southern China) dim sum style and Thai style stuffed buns, the origins of Baozi remain obscure [5]. To better understand the constant evolution of cuisine through time and how baozi has evolved due to regionality and dynamic change of culture, I recreated a classic Northern China baozi from Recipes from the Garden of Contentment: Yuan Mei's Manual of Gastronomy [7] and a Mongolian style baozi from A Soup for the Qan: Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era, As Seen in Hu Sihui’s Yinshan Zhengyao [9].
The History
Legend says that Chancellor Zhuge Liang (181-234 C.E.), a military strategist, invented baozi as an offering to the gods to save his subordinates. There are multiple stories of Zhuge Liang using stuffed breads as offerings, but the most famous being his deception of a river deity. The deity would only give Zhuge Liang and his army safe passage if sacrificed fifty of his men and threw their heads in the river. Rather than sacrifice his men, he ordered fifty bread buns the size of human heads to be stuffed with meat and thrown into the river to deceive the river god [2]. Whether or not Zhuge Liang actually invented baozi in order to appease a river god, the historical origin of the dish begins in the Xinjiang province of Northern China. Scholars estimate that during the Han dynasty, Uyghur cooks made stuffed breads with a lamb filling. As the dish disseminated into the rest of China, the filling likely changed with the availability of local ingredients [2].
The Recipes:
The Sources:
For the classic style, jiaozi-based buns, I took influence from Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy. The Qing dynasty bureaucrat and poet collected recipes (with the help of his master chef Wang Xiaoyu) he enjoyed and compiled a manuscript that was eventually published in 1792. It is a well-respected and highly circulated cookbook in China, and translator Chen states that “Chinese chefs today still proudly present dishes from this book,” [9, p. XV]. For the wrapper dough, the recipe book has entries for mantou and jiaozi under the appetizer section. The mantou dough recipe is listed under the mantou heading in the glossary, but no measurements were given. Due to the lack of measurements, I used the recipe featured in the Disney shot Bao. The recipe is the short director Domee Shi’s mother’s recipe [4]. The same heading in Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy contained the single mention of baozi in the cookbook, stating that “When these [mantou] buns are filled, they are called baozi” [9, p. 207].
For the classic filling, Yuan Mei writes that jiaozi are pieces of dough filled with pork and then steamed. Therefore, for the similarly filled baozi, I chose a pork-based recipe for a traditional, dim sum pork bun. I used a modified jiaozi filling recipe from The Food of China: a Journey for Food Lovers [1]. I felt it an applicable substitute for Yuan Mei’s book because similar to Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy the modern cookbook is a collection of delicious recipes across China that show a deep appreciation of cultural cuisine.
In addition to Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy, I used the baozi recipe from A Soup for the Qan. The cookbook is a dietary manual that was presented to the Emperor of the Yuan dynasty. It was compiled by Hu Sihui, an imperial dietary physician [7]. The manual illustrates how Chinese cuisine was impacted by Mongol rule, with the incorporation of Turkic flavors, ingredients, and techniques. The baozi recipe combines classic Chinese ingredients of mandarin orange, ginger, soy sauce, and oyster mushrooms with Turkic spices of cardamom, coriander, and turmeric.
The mantou dough along with its ingredients
The Dough:
Yuan Mei wrote that “Mantou (steamed bread) are plain leaven wheat bread consisting only of flour, water, and yeast” [9]. However, he gives no measurements or proportions in order to make the dough. I turned to Shi’s recipe as many other modern recipes contain sugar to help the yeast bloom, but Shi’s recipe had only the three ingredients listed by Yuan Mei.
Shi’s Recipe:
4 cups of all-purpose flour
500 milliliters of warm water
3/4 of a teaspoon of yeast
To make the dough first combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the water and mix until a shaggy dough is formed. Turn it out to a floured countertop and knead the dough. Add more flour or water to get a smooth and not too sticky consistency. Make sure to knead thoroughly because according to Yuan Mei,
Making good mantou (steamed buns) is much more about technique than the ingredients. First, to make a dough that is gleaming white, it needs to be kneaded until the air bubbles created by the yeast are extremely fine and held fast by well-developed gluten strands. Next, the dough must be correctly flattened and stretched so that it has a fine grain and, once steamed, appears as if the bun consists of many small individual threads [9].
Once a cohesive dough is formed place it into an oiled bowl and let the dough rise for two hours. During the rise is when you should make your Baozi filling.
The Fillings:
The ingredients for both fillings
The jiaozi style filling:
I based this baozi filling on jiaozi because there was no distinct recipe for baozi in Yuan Mei’s cookbook. The terms baozi and jiaozi have been used interchangeably throughout history as stuffed wrapped foods [2]. Fuchsia Dunlop discusses how in modern China baozi tend to fall under the “dumpling” category, justifying the use of a jiaozi filling recipe [2]. Furthermore, scholarly writings on baozi and the fermentation of the wrapper dough (when a fermented starter is used in place of yeast) often refer to the baozi as jiaozi. The primary difference between the two dishes is yeasted dough versus unyeasted dough.
The jiaozi filling recipe from the food of china: a journey for food lovers:
300 grams of Chinese cabbage (also known as napa cabbage)
1 teaspoon of salt
450 grams of ground pork
100 grams of Chinese garlic chives*
2 and 1/2 tablespoons of light soy sauce
1 tablespoon of Shaoxing rice wine
2 tablespoons of roasted sesame oil
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
1 tablespoon of cornstarch**
*I used scallion as I was unable to obtain Chinese garlic chive and scallion is a close substitute.
**I opted not to use corn starch as it would not have been available at the time.
Making the filling
Start by thinly slicing a quarter of a head of napa cabbage and slicing the whites of three bunches of scallions and adding them to the ground pork. Add the soy sauce, fresh minced ginger, salt, and Shaoxing wine and mix. Once ingredients are combined, let the filling sit in the refrigerator to let the different flavors marinate together.
The Mongolian style filling:
Below is the original translated recipe of the Mongolian style baozi:
[89.] Pleurotus ostreatus [Mushroom] Baozi (Some make them from crab spawn. This is also possible. Wisteria Baozi is entirely the same.) Mutton, sheep’s fat, sheep’s tail, onions, prepared mandarin orange peel, sprouting ginger. (Cut up each finely), Pleurotus ortreatus [mushrooms] (Scald in boiling water. When cooked, clean and cut up finely.) [49A] [To] ingredients add spices, salt, sauce and make stuffing. [Use] white flour to make a thin skin. Steam [7].
Here is the modernized version of the recipe I used in the experiment:
1 pound of ground lamb
1 yellow onion
1 pack of oyster mushrooms
1 mandarin orange, zested
1 knob of fresh ginger
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon coriander
1 teaspoon cardamom
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
1 teaspoon of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of allspice
Because there were no specific spices listed, other than salt, so I looked for what the translators had listed as “important spices” [7, p. 72]. In the filling, I added whatever spices on that list I could find in my home, which are the ones listed above.
Making the filling
I started by parboiling the mushrooms. I then diced one yellow onion, rough chopped the mushrooms, and added them to the ground lamb. I then zested one mandarin orange into the bowl and added the fresh minced ginger. I added soy sauce and the spices. Finally, I added salt and mixed to combine. I let the filling rest in the refrigerator to the flavors could marinate together.
Filling the Baozi
Preparing the dough:
Once the dough has finished rising, put it onto a lightly floured surface and knead it once more. Then in following Shi’s technique, punch a hole into the center of the dough and stretch it out using the pinwheel technique [6]. Cut the dough into two long strands of dough, which should then be cut into twelve one-inch pieces, netting a total of twenty-four bun wrappers (twelve for each filling).
Stuffing the buns
To stuff, the buns started by rolling out the dough piece into a four-inch-wide circle. Place the dough circle in your and put a spoonful of the filling into the center of the dough circle. Pat down the filling and pleat the bun so it is sealed.
Steaming the buns:
Boil water in a pot that a bamboo steamer could sit atop. Place parchment paper into the steamer base and place the buns onto the parchment paper. Avoid overcrowding the steamer basket as the buns will expand while cooking. The jiaozi style were steamed for twenty-three minutes, while the Mongolian style were steamed for thirty minutes.
Steamed baozi
On pleating
Pleating was the most difficult part of the entire experiment, being a difficult technique to perform and one that cooks take time to master. Here is a video with helpful instruction on pleating plus other ways of wrapping baozi:
Discussion
I adjusted the recipes as needed while still trying to remain as historically grounded as possible. I only used ingredients that would be available at the time the recipes were published. For example, the modern jiaozi recipe called for cornstarch, which was not invented until 1842, and was not used in food until much later [8]. Therefore, staying true to Yuan Mei’s time meant omitting cornstarch from the filling. Additionally, Chinese chives do tend to have a similar (but milder) flavor as scallions. Additionally, scallions are common in Chinese cuisine, and therefore a good substitute.
The justification for using a jiaozi filling recipe for baozi is the similarity between the two dishes. They both fall under the larger category of “dumplings” and the names were typically interchangeable until definitions were codified [2]. Even today jiaozi is used in place of baozi in scholarly work, which typically looks into the fermentation of mantou dough. The two stuffed dishes differ by one ingredient in their wrapper: yeast.
Improvement in my experiment would be in finding a true recipe for a common pork baozi in a historical cookbook. While I believe my use of a jiaozi recipe is historically accurate, it would make for a better comparison. If that is not possible, I would try to better replicate the jiaozi filling that Yuan Mei outlines. He specifies that a cook should braise a piece of pork that is tender and has had its tendons removed [9]. Braising a pork tenderloin or trimmed and deboned pork chops and using that as the base of the filling would improve the experiment.
Additionally, while the translation for the mantou dough does say yeast, the rising agent was typically a fermented piece of the previous day’s dough containing wild yeast [3]. Using plain baker’s yeast yielded a good result, but in the future, I could instead culture and use a fermented rising agent or starter.
The simplicity of a stuffed bun allowed for creativity and interchangeability of the stuffing. The difference between the two fillings illustrates how various cultures and regions can bring about different flavors even in the simplest of dishes.
Finished Product
References
[1] Deh-Ta Hsiung, Jason Lowe, and Nina Simonds. The Food of China : A Journey for Food Lovers. Australia: Murdoch Books, 2008.
[2] Dunlop, Fuchsia. Wrapped & Stuffed Foods : Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery 2012. Edited by Mark McWilliams. Totnes, Devon, England: Prospect Books, 2013.
[3] Hui, Y H, and E Özgül Evranuz. Handbook of Plant-Based Fermented Food and Beverage Technology. Boca Raton, Fl: Crc Press, 2012.
[4] Lo, Danica, and 2018. “Pixar ‘Bao’ Director Domee Shi Gave Us Her Mom’s Dumpling Recipe.” Food & Wine. Meredith Corporation Allrecipes Food Group, June 11, 2018. https://www.foodandwine.com/cooking-techniques/bao-pixar-dumpling-recipe.
[5] Namaste, Nina B, and Marta Nadales Ruiz. Who Decides? : Competing Narratives in Constructing Tastes, Consumption and Choice. Leiden ; Boston: Brill Rodopi, 2018.
[6] Rea, Andrew. “Bao Inspired by Pixar’s Bao.” Binging With Babish, February 19, 2019. https://www.bingingwithbabish.com/recipes/baobuns.
[7] Sihui, Hu, Paul D Buell, E N Anderson, and Charles Perry. A Soup for the Qan : Chinese Dietary Medicine of the Mongol Era as Seen in Hu Szu-Hui’s Yin-Shan Cheng-Yao : Introduction, Translation, Commentary, and Chinese Text. Oxon ; New York: Routledge, 2016.
[8] Williams, Corey. “What Is Cornstarch and How Do You Use It?” MyRecipes. MyRecipes, October 23, 2019. https://www.myrecipes.com/how-to/cooking-questions/what-is-cornstarch#:~:text=Thomas%20Kingsford%20invented%20cornstarch%20in,was%20used%20to%20starch%20laundry..
[9] Yuan, Mei, and Sean J.S. Chen. Recipes from the Garden of Contentment : Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy : 隨園食單 / Recipes from the Garden of Contentment : Yuan Mei’s Manual of Gastronomy. Great Barrington, Massachusetts: Berkshire, 2019.