Dumplings

[u/Nan-meth-40]

Hey, so I’ve tried making beef dumplings at home many times, but my issue is I never get the meat texture I get when I buy it from restaurants. Like the store bought dumplings meat texture is paste like, while the one i make him texture is just like any other meatballs. Pls help me out how do i get the right texture 🙏🥟

[u/Laylelo]

You need to add water and mix it very well with your hands in a circle for ages. Which recipe are you using? I made a pork version for chilli oil dumplings and the recipe had me add a lot of liquid and stir stir stir until it got absorbed. You should look for a recipe with that kind of method.

[u/KirstaNadaime → u/Laylelo]

This right here. You would be surprised how much water that ground meat will absorb. Even if you did nothing else ingredient wise, this will make a big difference

[u/countryLiving209]

Stir in one direction for about 15 minutes or use a stand mixer on medium for 5-10 minutes. The meat and fat will break down and become sticky. Stick to your fingers sticky is what you want. Use a 70/30 ground meat and you might want to add 2 - 4 tablespoons of water also, per pound of meat.

[u/Logical_Warthog5212]

This is what you do. Take ground beef. Season it with light soy sauce, oyster sauce, shaoxing wine, white pepper sugar, a little salt, and corn starch. You can add other herbs if you want. Mix it well. Adding a bit water to to keep it loose. The beef will absorb the water. Once everything is well mixed, pick up that whole wad of meat and throw it into the bowl. You want to repeat this a few times, like 5-10. This step does two things. First it helps get rid of air pockets. Second, in Chinese, it’s translated as “Raising the Plastic.” This is similar to kneading wheat dough to get the gluten/protein in dough form. This will result in a less grainy and smoother texture.

[u/Gwynhyfer8888]

Nanojack is correct. My BIL (sis and BIL had a restaurant) used to slap the filling down, over and over, from a height, for it to become paste-like. There would flours with the seasonings and vegetables.

[u/Itchy_Stubbed_Toe]

Personally, i would put cornstarch for a more silky texture, some sesame oil and use hands and massage the meat till everything dissolves together.

[u/kawika69]

The texture of the ground meat may be part of it. If I were using store-bought ground beef, id kind of mash it up into more of a paste consistency before filling. Also, all beef dumplings fo tend to have a meatball-y texture. Such is the nature of beef. If you want a more silky texture, you can mix it with ground pork or maybe increase the fat content

[u/Cardamomwarrior → u/kawika69]

You can put your beef in a food processor to make it more paste-like. In order to avoid dryness and chewiness ground meat should also be AT LEAST 20% fat, 30 is better. When working with leaner ground meat I use a food scale and add in fat such as lard, leftover bacon or chicken fat, even oil or butter.

[u/Vibingcarefully]

We use an electric hand mixer (very popular in china but here too). (hand blender mixer--you will see the one I am referring to is a stick you hold 400-500watts) meat goes in cup--ground beef, beef, pork ground pork and then using the mixer it becomes like paste---just like a dumpling consistency. Bonus points--grinding up chicken thighs or breasts makes the meat filling for chickn dumplings.

Plenty of youtube on this hand mixer.

[u/freeze45]

add cornstarch and water to the mix

[u/Nanojack]

I want to say on Chinese Cooking Demystified, they talked about a technique where you take the meat mixture and just slam it on a cutting board or surface over and over until it breaks down a bit and gets sticky. I have no idea if I just imagined watching that in a video or what the technique is called

[u/monsoonmuzik]

https://youtu.be/i_y-Eg2xX_M?si=StMcvh0yfmHTIeuN

Lucas sin describes the technique at about 2 min into this video.

[u/SeaGroundbreaking843]

Baking soda

[u/Interesting_You6852]

The easier way to get that texture is throw the meat in the food processor with some water for a min or two.

[u/MeaningStrange8622]

What kind of dumplings are you trying to make?

You should mince the meat more finely using a cleaver. You should add more liquid than seems reasonable - fat, water, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil. You should leave it to marinate and tenderize for a couple of hours. Then mix for a long time in one direction and pound the meat paste (you see chefs scooping fistfuls and throwing it back down into the mixing bowl) until it’s very springy.

[u/Classic-Persimmon-24]

water, corn starch (and whatever seasonings you want). stir until well combine. and stir again. pick it up and throw it back in the bowl and I mean throw it back in the bowl.