Tongshan Sweet Potato Starch Dumplings 通山包坨

How it is made

The skin is made from sweet-potato starch (苕粉). The Xianning city government describes a filling of finely diced meat, bamboo shoot, dried tofu and radish, wrapped and rolled into a round lump. A 2025 Jimu News (极目新闻) report lists the filling as oil-dried tofu (油干), pork, radish, bamboo shoot, peanuts, spring onion and garlic, stir-fried before it is wrapped. The starch dough has to be kneaded until it is very elastic so the pieces can be boiled, steamed or stir-fried without breaking, and the filling should be tasty without being greasy.

Baotuo are usually the last job of New Year preparations: by then the family pig has been slaughtered and the tofu made, and the sweet-potato starch was sun-dried earlier in the winter. On ordinary working days, Jimu News says, mountain families made a quicker starch lump (苕粉坨) by stirring sweet-potato starch with peanuts and boiling water in a basin with chopsticks.

Flavour and texture

The Xianning government describes a thin skin and a tasty filling that can be made with or without meat, steamed, boiled or deep-fried; the starch skin is chewy and the filling rich. Jimu News calls simmering the pieces in a thick broth of locally raised pork the best way to eat them. Each Tongshan area has its own way of making them, and those from around Yangfang town (杨芳镇) are the best known, which Jimu News says is probably because the area produces plenty of oil-dried tofu.

Where it comes from

Tongshan is mountainous with little paddy land, and the city government explains its sweet-potato cooking by that: the county also makes sweet-potato starch pork (苕粉肉), starch dumplings (苕粉饺) and starch stewed with cured pork (苕粉炖腊肉). The same food is found across the Mufu Mountains (幕阜山) area, in Yangxin (阳新), Daye (大冶), Tongshan, Chongyang (崇阳) and Xianning, sometimes under the name taro balls (芋头圆), but it is most common on Tongshan tables, hence the county name. Other local names are batuo (粑坨), datuo (大坨) and shaofentuo (苕粉坨).

Every Tongshan household makes baotuo for New Year, and the round shape stands for reunion and good fortune. Jimu News met a Tongshan woman living in Wenquan (温泉), Xianning, who rolled more than 300 pieces with her family, and another in the Tongshan county town who froze 400 for her brothers to take home after the holiday. By custom baotuo are eaten at New Year and festivals, and at other times made for honoured guests.

More dishes to compare

Explore related local specialties and compare their names, preparation notes and ordering guidance.