Getting the Soup into the Buns

After our recent defeat in the Dim Sum arena, Lou and I decided we needed to invest in more R&D so we went to Yank Sing for lunch. We of course ordered two steamer baskets of the Shanghai pork dumplings and began our analysis. Immediately, we realized we just didn't have a large enough aspic to pork filling ratio. There was an abundance of broth with a very small amount of pork. I'm not sure why I didn't do the calculation earlier. Sometimes it's best to fully analyze a recipe's ratios before trying it out. In this case, the 1/2 cup of aspic, which admittedly sounded low, equates to only 1 teaspoon of broth per dumpling. (There are 8 tablespoons in 1/2 cup and 3 teaspoons in one tablespoon- 24 teaspoons for 24 dumplings) Perhaps the ratios in the Gourmet recipe I was using are authentic, but they are not adequate for what we are trying to accomplish. Yank Sing had about 2 teaspoons in each dumpling with about 1/2 the amount of pork. What to do now? Unfortunately, we mixed all of the aspic I made into the pork, so we cannot re-apportion the filling. Perhaps we can save it yet. I'll have to do some investigating.