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Har Gow Shrimp Dumplings

A Chinese dumpling with a translucent wrapper filled with shrimp, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, and seasonings.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shrimp and oyster match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 511 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Time12-15 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, shellfish, sesame (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

  • Dough
  • Har Gow Filling

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift the wheat starch and tapioca starch into a bowl.

  2. Slowly add the boiling water and begin stirring immediately.

  3. Add enough water until you have a sticky dough.

  4. Add the lard and knead the dough until it is smooth.

  5. Cover the dough and let rest for 30 minutes.

Prepare the filling

  1. Finely chop the shrimp.

  2. Rinse the bamboo shoots and water chestnuts under warm running water. Drain.

  3. Shred the bamboo shoots.

  4. Finely chop the water chestnuts.

  5. While the dough is resting, mix together the filling ingredients.

Shape and steam

  1. Knead the rested dough a bit more.

  2. Pinch a heaping teaspoon of dough and roll it out into a 3-inch circle.

  3. Wet the edges of the circle.

  4. Add 1 level teaspoon of the filling in the middle.

  5. Fold over the dough and pleat the edges to seal.

  6. Continue with the remainder of the dumplings.

  7. Steam the dumplings until the filling is cooked and the dough is shiny and translucent (12-15 minutes).

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Shrimp + oystertop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together511 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Bamboo shoots + water chestnuttop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Water chestnut + oniontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Shrimp + water chestnuttop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together66 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  5. Shrimp + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,193 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Wheat starch
Forms the chewy, translucent dough that holds the filling.
Tapioca starch
Makes the dough more elastic and tender when combined with wheat starch.
Boiling water
Gelatinizes the starches so the dough becomes workable and cohesive.
Raw shrimp
Provides the main filling and its savory flavor and texture.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the dough smooth and pliable.

The step that matters

Adding the boiling water to the starches. Stirring in boiling water right away gelatinizes the starches evenly. Adding it slowly and stirring quickly prevents lumps and dry pockets, so the dough can be kneaded smooth and stays pliable enough to pleat without cracking.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, shrimp, bamboo shoots, water chestnut, oyster, sauce, sugar):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Welsh onionbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, shrimp, bamboo shoots, water chestnut, oyster, sauce, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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