{"id":109747,"title":"Nikuman \u2013 Japanese Steamed Pork Buns","modified":"2025-10-29T15:58:42+01:00","plain":"Pillowy Japanese steamed buns with a juicy pork center perfumed with ginger, shiitake mushrooms, and soy sauce.\n\n\n\nOn an icy night in Tokyo, numb fingers seek comfort. They find it in the plume of steam rising from a street vendor\u2019s bamboo steamer. Inside are snow-white buns, so soft they tremble; their pleats release aromas of soy, ginger, and pork fat.\n\n\n\nBorn of the Chinese baozi, nikuman has, over the centuries, absorbed Japanese restraint and seasonality to become the country\u2019s favorite winter hand warmer. Today, I\u2019m sharing all its secrets.\n\n\n\nThe famous Chinese baozi\n\n\n\nFrom baozi to nikuman : 700 years in the making\n\n\n\nAccording to legend, the 3rd century strategist Zhuge Liang shaped sacrificial \u201chead buns\u201d to placate a river god, planting the seed of the Chinese baozi. More than a millennium later, in 1349, the Chinese monk Lin J\u016bnin (Rin J\u014din) arrived in Japan with his expertise in mantou and a clever innovation: a fermented dough made with amazake, able to rise without baker\u2019s yeast while accommodating a meatless filling in keeping with Buddhist precepts.\n\n\n\nThe sweet, bean-filled manj\u016b that followed reigned at tea tables for half a millennium\u2014indulgent, yet decidedly meatless.\n\n\n\nRed bean paste is very easy to make at home\n\n\n\nEverything changed after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which lifted Japan\u2019s taboo on meat. In the newly opened ports, Chinese immigrants steamed pork buns, called ch\u016bkaman, for homesick sailors.\n\n\n\nIn Kobe, the shop R\u014dsh\u014dki coined the term \u201cbutaman\u201d in 1915; its small buns studded with shrimp sparked a local craze. Across the archipelago, Shinjuku\u2019s Nakamuraya lightened the seasoning in 1927, toning down strong spices in favor of a gentler balance between soy sauce and mirin; by the early 1930s, nikuman had moved from a Chinatown curiosity to a winter staple across the country.\n\n\n\nRegional variations\n\n\n\nAsk for a \u201cnikuman\u201d in Tokyo and you\u2019ll be handed a bun. Try the same in Osaka and you\u2019ll get puzzled looks: there, where niku evokes beef, vendors sell the same pork bun under the name \u201cbutaman.\u201d\n\n\n\nYou really don\u2019t need many ingredients to make nikuman at home\n\n\n\nIn Kansai, loyalty centers on 551 Horai; its pink boxes perfume homebound trains, each bun accompanied by a dab of karashi mustard that clears the sinuses. In Kobe, the century-old R\u014dsh\u014dki still offers bite-size butaman, while the hawkers of Chinatown in Yokohama flaunt specimens close to 15 cm in diameter.\n\n\n\nSeasonality is part of the ritual, too. From late August or early September, convenience stores set out steam-warmed display cases that won\u2019t be switched off until spring; commuters grab a bun with the same reflex as grabbing a coffee.\n\n\n\nJanuary 25 is unofficially \u201cCh\u016bkaman Day,\u201d a date chosen because it falls in the dead of winter\u2014the kind of morning when a paper-wrapped bun serves as both pocket warmer and breakfast.\n\n\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n\tNikuman \u2013 Japanese Steamed Pork Buns\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\tDough150 g bread flour (10\u201312% protein)150 g pastry flour (5\u201310% protein)30 g sugar3 g salt6 g dry yeast3 g baking powder90 g warm water (35-38 \u00b0C)65 g sake20 g vegetable oilFilling350 g ground pork (about 30% fat)150 g onion (finely chopped)150 g bamboo shoots (precooked, diced)15 g dried shiitake mushrooms (rehydrated, diced)5 g ginger (grated)2.5 tablespoons light soy sauce1.5 tablespoons oyster sauce2.5 tablespoons cooking sake1.5 teaspoons Wei-pa (or chicken bouillon paste)1.5 tablespoons sugar1.5 tablespoons sesame oilsalt and pepper (to taste)\t\n\t\n\t\tMake the doughIn a bowl, whisk together the two flours, sugar, salt, dry yeast, and baking powder.Add the sake and about two-thirds of the warm water; stir, then add just enough of the remaining water to form a shaggy dough.Knead on the counter for 10 minutes, work in the vegetable oil, then knead for another 5 minutes until the dough is smooth.Shape the dough into a ball, cover, and let rise for 15 minutes at 30 \u00b0C.Make the fillingRehydrate the shiitake mushrooms, chop the onion and bamboo shoots, and grate the ginger.In a bowl, combine the ground pork, prepared vegetables, soy sauce, oyster sauce, cooking sake, Wei-pa, sugar, sesame oil, salt, and pepper. Mix until sticky, then divide into 10 portions.Shaping and steamingPunch down the dough, divide into 10 pieces, shape each into a ball, cover, and rest for 10 minutes.Flatten each piece into a round, keeping it thicker in the center; add a portion of filling, pleat to seal, then set each bao on a square of parchment paper.Let the bao rise for 10 to 15 minutes at 35 \u00b0C.Steam the bao over rapidly boiling water for 15 minutes, remove from the steamer, and serve hot.\t\n\t\n\t\t\nBlanching bamboo shoots for 10 seconds removes their astringency and intensifies their aroma.\nKeeping the dough slightly thicker in the center prevents tearing when the filling releases juices during steaming.\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\tDim sumJaponaise\t\n\n\n\n\n\nCulinary Sources\n\n\n\n\u2022 Nikuman (steamed pork buns) \u2013 Just One Cookbook (English)\u2022 Baozi \u2013 Wikipedia (English)\u2022 History of butaman (nikuman\/ch\u016bkaman) \u2013 Butaman Shop (Japanese)\u2022 Why did nikuman follow a different path from manj\u016b (wagashi)? \u2013 \u7687\u671d (K\u014dch\u014d) (Japanese)\u2022 The original \u201cR\u014dsh\u014dki\u201d butaman \u2013 KOBE \u8c5a\u9945\u30b5\u30df\u30c3\u30c8 (Japanese)\u2022 Ch\u016bka-man \u2013 product history \u2013 \u65b0\u5bbf\u4e2d\u6751\u5c4b (Japanese)\u2022 Nikuman \u2013 traditional and authentic Japanese recipe \u2013 196 Flavors (English)\u2022 Nikuman \u2014 Japanese steamed pork buns \u2013 La Fuji Mama (English)\u2022 First time making nikuman (steamed pork buns)! \u2013 Reddit (English)\u2022 Homemade: steamed pork buns! \u2013 Reddit (English)\u2022 The best butaman in Osaka: 551 Horai and Horai \u2013 Kansai Odyssey (English)\u2022 How to make nikuman (Chinese-style steamed pork buns)\u2026 \u2013 Reddit (English)\u2022 One of the best simple culinary discoveries of my adult life. \u2013 Reddit (English)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109747"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":110110,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109747\/revisions\/110110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcwiner.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}