A small round bowl of plain white porcelain holds unfilled white steamed buns made from fermented wheat dough, their white surfaces visible above the bowl's rim, with wooden chopsticks resting beside the bowl.
Leavened dough steamed into plain buns, filled buns and rolls.
Mantou is an unfilled bun of fermented wheat dough, cooked by steaming, and a staple of northern China. In Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou the word also covers filled buns. Shu Xi's Ode to Cakes, from the Jin dynasty, uses an early written form of the word in a line about banquets at the start of spring and gives no year; the Jin shu biography of He Zeng records that he would not eat a steamed cake unless it split in a cross on top. By the Song dynasty, the filled bun was called baozi and the unfilled one mantou.
What
Mantou is an unfilled bun of fermented wheat dough, cooked by steaming, and a staple of northern China.1,2
When
Shu Xi's Ode to Cakes, from the Jin dynasty, uses an early written form of the word in a line about banquets at the start of spring and gives no year. The Jin shu biography of He Zeng records that he would not eat a steamed cake unless it split in a cross on top. Neither text tells where mantou came from; the second shows only that steamed cakes were known in the Jin. By the Song dynasty, the filled bun was called baozi and the unfilled one mantou.1,3,4
Where
Plain mantou is a staple of northern China; in Shanghai, Suzhou and Hangzhou the word also covers filled buns. The available material gives no definite place of origin.1
How
Flour, water, yeast and sugar are kneaded into a dough, left to rise and steamed. Two recipes steam it for 15 and 20 minutes, and both leave the buns to rest in the pot for a few minutes afterward so they do not collapse. One uses whole wheat flour and milk, the other flour with wheat starch, and their amounts and rising times differ.5,6
Why
The available material does not explain why mantou is cooked by steaming. A folk tale explains the name through Zhuge Liang offering dough in place of human heads, but this explanation has no documentary support.1,2
Impact and influence
A national standard numbered 21118-2007 covers wheat mantou. The available material says nothing about its spread beyond China.1
Legend has it that when the Shu minister Zhuge Liang returned from his southern campaign, he was told that the spirits of the dead needed forty-nine human heads. He had dough shaped like heads and filled with meat offered in their place, and the food took its name from that offering.
Told in: A folk tale, retold in Chinese and English Wikipedia. English Wikipedia labels it a legend with weak sourcing, and Chinese Wikipedia notes that this explanation of the name has no documentary support.
This is a simplified home version, not the traditional restaurant method.
This is the plain mantou I make at home, a simplified home version: I do not make big batches, just eight at a time in an ordinary home steamer. The amounts and steaming time follow a recipe by a named blogger that uses flour with wheat starch and no milk. A second recipe by another named blogger is a whole wheat version with milk; its amounts differ and I did not use them, and took from it just the habit of resting the buns a few minutes after steaming. I judge doneness myself by pressing a bun at the end.
Ingredients
Flour 235 g
Wheat starch 50 g
Baking powder 5 g
Yeast 7 g
Sugar 50 g
Water 130 g
Cooking oil 24 g
Steps
Put the flour, wheat starch, baking powder, yeast and sugar in a large bowl and mix. Pour in the water and oil and knead to a smooth dough.
Roll the dough into a long sheet, fold it in three like a letter, then roll it up into a thick log.
Cut the log into 8 pieces, each about 5 cm long. Set them in the steamer a little apart and leave them to rise for 20 minutes.
Set the steamer over the pot and steam over medium-low heat for 20 minutes.
Turn off the heat, do not lift the lid at once, and leave the buns in the pot for another 4 minutes before taking them out.
Press a bun lightly with a finger. If it springs back, I call it done; if it stays dented, I steam it a few minutes more.
Tips
Both recipes leave the buns in the pot for a few minutes after steaming (4 minutes in one, 5 in the other), and I do the same so they do not collapse.
The two recipes differ on steaming time, 15 minutes in one and 20 in the other. I follow the 20-minute one and then use the pressing test in the last step, which is my own choice.
