The World Table

An interactive culinary compendium: recipes, lexicon and study

Chinese · Soup

Wonton Soup

  • Intermediate
  • 50 min
  • roughly 2 of 4 for cost

aromatic · herb-fresh · nutty-toasted Leads with aromatics blooming from the first bite, fresh herbs arguing happily on top, closing toasted and warm.

Ingredients

  • 250g ground pork + 150g shrimp, chopped
  • 1 tbsp soy, 1 tsp sesame oil, white pepper, ginger
  • 40 wonton wrappers
  • 1.2L chicken stock + a slice of ginger
  • Bok choy, scallion

The skills inside

Salted water & the float test

The words inside

Bok Choy

Allergen screen

Found: gluten · shellfish · soy · sesame

Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.

Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.

Method

  1. Beat the filling in one direction until sticky and bouncy.
  2. Dot filling, wet edges, fold triangle, then pinch corners together.
  3. Boil wontons separately until they float + 1 min. 1 min
  4. Serve in hot seasoned stock with greens.

How to tell it is going right

This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.

Salted water & the float test 188 recipes

  • The water was salted before anything went in, and tasting it confirms it: seasoned on the tongue, with the salt dissolved rather than sitting on the pot floor.
  • There is enough water, hot enough, that the pot returns to its boil quickly after the food goes in and never stops moving.
  • Where the dish uses the float as its signal, the signal is obeyed: the pieces rise and they come out then, not several minutes later once something else was finished.
  • Nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot or welded to itself, and the water has not thickened into a cloudy sludge.
  • Drained on a bite rather than on the clock: resistance at the centre, with no chalky raw core.

Where it goes wrong The pot was too small and the water unsalted, so it never recovered its boil: the food sat in slack water, went gummy at the surface, and comes out bland in a way that no sauce afterwards can fix.

At the Table

The Pour
Albariño
Also Right
Champagne
From the Taps
Pilsner or witbier
Zero-Proof
White grape & tonic

Shellfish sweetness meets acid, salinity, and bubbles, precision instruments for delicate meat.

Saved on this device and kept across visits: export from My Menu to move them.

Film school

This dish, cooked on camera Search films of Wonton Soup Search YouTube: Chinese Cooking Demystified on Wonton Soup A YouTube search for Chinese Cooking Demystified and this dish. No affiliation.