Wed 8 Nov 2006
I indeed won the perogi making class for me and some friends. Pretty soon I will be making these:
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November 8th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
PIEROGI, or at least that’s how it’s spelled in Polish. Anyway, I miss them…
November 9th, 2006 at 3:24 am
or PIROGI (пироги) in Russian. (Although what you have on the photo there looks more like pelmeni or dumplings.)
November 9th, 2006 at 3:53 am
What you see is really called pierogi in Polish. Singular: pierog or pieróg. In some older Polish literature pierog is a cake with meat filling. IIRC, that’s exactly what you would call pirog in Russian. I like leniwe (lazy
pierogi, with cottage cheese, but my favorite are those with mushrooms. 
Drat, you made me hungry.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:09 am
Actually, Alex is right, doubly so because the image filename implies Russian rather than Polish origins.
In Russian, a pierog is singular (pierogi is plural), and refers to a tray-sized closed pie. It is never filled with dairy derivatives, only with one of cabbage, cabbage+egg, rice+egg, minced meat, fish. The fish one has a special version called “rasstegai”.
The picture seems to refer to “pirozhok” (singular), or “pirozhki” (plural). HOWEVER, proper pirozhki are baked, not roasted! The crust flakes seems to indicate an improper process. Also, they must utilize yeast based dough. Can such dough form the flakes like that?
Another thing, they seem to be roasted on their sides for some reason. “Pirozhki” have the seam on top.
“Pelmeni” (plural), are boiled or roasted, and their dough is either egg+flour or milk+flour. Boiling is the default process. So, they are smaller than pictured. I have a pic here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zaitcev/125012259/
So, by the looks of it, the item displayed above is some kind of hybrid pastry, which probably has little to do with the Russian tradition sans the name.
This is not a bad thing, as long as the result tastes well. We just need to come up with a name for them. “Jefives” might work…
November 9th, 2006 at 9:01 am
If you’re going to start doing serious food photography, like krissa has been playing with (krissa.org/blog/) you need to buy prettier plates
November 9th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Actually I got the picture from Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perogi
They spell it Pierogi but note in the first sentance that it is also known as Perogi umong other names.
November 9th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
I’m sorry that I started that non-constructive discussion about nothing. I just started drooling when I saw the picture. It reminded me how delicious they are and how long ago I had a chance to eat them.
Pete: “Ruskie” – is Polish “Russian” – and it describes just one kind of the filling. They are probably also my favorite ones.
Anyway, the best place to have some “Pierogi”, not only “Ruskie” is “Pierogarnia” on 32 Slawkowaska Street in Krakow, Poland.
http://www.cracow-life.com/krakow/where_to_eat/restaurants_details/269-Pierogarnia
November 22nd, 2006 at 11:01 am
the items you have pictured from wikipedia are known in russian and ukrainian as “vereniki”, i’m guessing that these are filled with some potato filling (maybe cabbage) and topped with fryed bacon (goes well with potato and cabbage). they are shaped with the seam on the side because they are made with this little plastic tool shaped like a shallow bowl with ridges around the outside. you put a round piece of dough on the tool, put about a large tablespoon of filling and close the tool in half which will give you those shaped ridges. the alternative would be to use a fork or close the verenik (singular) with your fingers. then they are boiled or frozen and boiled later.
the photo that pete posted are of pelmeni. they are a smaller version of vareniki and are primarily filled with beef/pork mixture, sometimes chicken, or just beef or just pork. they can be made with a device that looks like a cooling rack with a bunch of holes or individually molded by hand. unlike vareniki, pelmeni hold about a teaspoon of filling.
pirozhki are either baked (after being coated with beaten egg for shine) or fried. the location of the seam is insignificant, and on a well made pirozhok (singular) shouldn’t even be noticed. these can be filled with anything vereniki or pelmeni are filled with or anything at all for that matter. beef/pork or egg/green onion fillng is my favorite.
then there is a whole other veriety of snacks you can find sold on russian/ukrainian streets, like chebureki
November 27th, 2006 at 2:59 am
They sell very passable chebureki in stores in San Francisco which are visited by xSU emigrants, specifically the one at the corner of Clement and 31st, across from the new Albertson’s.
Vareniki used to be made by hand, in which case they usually took form of a “galushka”, which was Ukraininan in origin. The jaws-style contraption is a fairly recent addition.
In Ufa, I saw pelmeni made with a different tool. It was simply an inverted metal cup with a sharp edge and a handle. Two rolled layers of dough are placed one upon another with stuffing balls in between, then the worker strikes the sandwith with the tool from the top. Every strike produces a ready pelmen’, in shape similar to those used to be sold in red-white boxes, only more round.