Dumplings scale like tamales: the dough and filling scale by weight, and the folding stays hand work at any size. Write both as one recipe by percentage, roll wrappers on a sheeter, weigh the filling into each one, and freeze them on trays before they're bagged. Done this way, a dumpling maker that folded 4 bags at a time makes about 118 bags of 24 in a day, and the cost of a bag falls from $9.39 to $5.26. Below is the recipe at three sizes, the steps, the loss, what a bag costs at each size, and a free scaling calculator.
The short version
- Write dough and filling as one recipe by percentage.
- Salt and squeeze the cabbage; the water comes out by weight.
- Roll wrappers on a sheeter and cut them the same size.
- Weigh the filling: same weight, same fold, same cook.
- Freeze on trays in one layer, then bag by count.
- Folding is the biggest cost of a bag at any size.
- TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield. More below.
The recipe, by percentage
Wollaston Dumpling Co., the made-up dumpling maker in Quincy, Massachusetts, I use in these examples, folded vegetable and tofu dumplings 4 bags at a time until an Asian grocer started ordering by the case. Dough and filling, weighed together:
| Ingredient | % of the mix | Kitchen batch, 5 lb | One batch, 40 lb | The run, 150 lb | Cost a lb, bought in bulk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 24% | 1.20 lb | 9.60 lb | 36.0 lb | $0.45 |
| Napa cabbage | 22.8% | 1.14 lb | 9.12 lb | 34.2 lb | $0.60 |
| Firm tofu | 16% | 0.80 lb | 6.40 lb | 24.0 lb | $1.80 |
| Water | 12% | 0.60 lb | 4.80 lb | 18.0 lb | $0.00 |
| Shiitake mushrooms | 6% | 0.30 lb | 2.40 lb | 9.00 lb | $6.00 |
| Carrot | 5% | 0.25 lb | 2.00 lb | 7.50 lb | $0.55 |
| Scallions | 4% | 0.20 lb | 1.60 lb | 6.00 lb | $1.50 |
| Soy sauce | 3% | 0.15 lb | 1.20 lb | 4.50 lb | $1.20 |
| Sesame oil | 2% | 0.10 lb | 0.80 lb | 3.00 lb | $5.00 |
| Ginger | 1.5% | 0.07 lb | 0.60 lb | 2.25 lb | $2.50 |
| Garlic | 1.5% | 0.07 lb | 0.60 lb | 2.25 lb | $2.80 |
| Cornstarch | 1.5% | 0.07 lb | 0.60 lb | 2.25 lb | $1.20 |
| Salt | 0.5% | 0.03 lb | 0.20 lb | 0.75 lb | $0.40 |
| White pepper | 0.2% | 0.01 lb | 0.08 lb | 0.30 lb | $10.00 |
| The whole mix | 100% | 5 lb | 40 lb | 150 lb |
The 150 pounds cost $185.37 in ingredients, under 7 cents a dumpling. The shiitakes are 6% of the weight and nearly a third of the cost. How percentages work for other recipes is in scaling recipes for production.
The steps, at 150 pounds
- Salt and squeeze the cabbage. Chopped, salted, rested and squeezed; the water that comes out is most of the run's loss.
- Mix the filling by weight. Cabbage, tofu, mushrooms and the rest, kept cold.
- Sheet the dough. Mixed, rested, rolled on a sheeter and cut into rounds of one size.
- Fill by weight and fold. About half an ounce of filling a wrapper, folded by hand at about 15 seconds each.
- Freeze on trays. One layer on floured sheet trays into the blast freezer, so they don't stick together.
- Bag by count. 24 to a bag, checked on a scale.
- Label with a lot code. Every bag carries the run's lot, the date and how to cook them.
The run takes about 20 hours of labor, most of it folding, with three people at the table.
What a bag of 24 costs at each size
| Per bag of 24 | Kitchen batch, 5 lb | Bulk run, 150 lb |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients | $2.94 (grocery prices) | $1.57 (bought in bulk) |
| Packaging | $0.45 | $0.30 |
| Labor at $20 an hour | $6.00 (18 min a bag of 24) | $3.39 (10.2 min a bag of 24) |
| Cost of a bag of 24 | $9.39 | $5.26 |
Flour by the sack and tofu by the case halve the ingredients, and the labor falls from 18 minutes a bag to about 10, because the sheeter does the rolling. The folding doesn't speed up. The grocer pays $10 a bag. The year is in dumpling business plan, and frozen bags in how to package frozen food for sale.
Keeping it cold
Tofu and cooked vegetables make a filling that's kept cold from mixing to freezing; a tray of folded dumplings left on a warm table while the next tray fills is the weak point of a bulk run. Fold from a cold bowl, and get trays into the freezer as they fill. Selling them frozen to shops is in license to sell frozen food.
Get the calculator
Download the dumpling scaling calculator. Two sheets: scale the recipe, where you type each ingredient's percentage and cost a pound and the raw mix you want, and each ingredient's weight for the run fills in, with the sheet trays, freezer loads, what comes out after the squeeze and trim loss, the bag of 24s it fills and the cost of each bag of 24; and weigh the loss, where what went in and came out over a few batches gives your average squeeze and trim loss. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Vegetable, pork and chive, and kimchi dumplings, runs three days a week, tofu from two suppliers, and a freezer of bags from different days. A sheet can say how much cabbage a run needs, but not which tofu went into which bag, or which bags are oldest.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the recipe by weight, takes each batch's ingredients off stock and checks its yield.
The recipe in the units you use. A recipe holds each ingredient by weight, with flour bought by the 50-pound sack and used by the pound, and the cost of every bag comes from what you paid. "What could I make right now" says how many runs the flour, tofu and cabbage on the shelf allow.
Each run a batch. A run takes its ingredients off stock, records the lots of tofu and cabbage it used, and gets a lot of its own for the bags, with how much came out good, how much was rejected and the labor minutes.
Yield checked from history. From your own batch history, TaroStack says whether a recipe yields what it claims and which ingredient's quantity is off, so a squeeze and trim loss that creeps up shows in the numbers. A case of tofu past its date is an adjustment with its reason, spoiled, and shows in the waste report.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Ingredients for Wednesday's run | Multiply, then check the shelf | What could I make right now |
| Which tofu went into a run | Not written down | Lots recorded on the batch |
| The real squeeze and trim loss | Weighed now and then | Good and rejected on every batch |
| Tofu past its date | Thrown out, forgotten | Adjustment with a reason |
Recipes, batches, lots and yield are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.