Food History: Pirogi

Pirogi* are Slavic dumplings that can be filled with basically anything. Common fillings include meat, cabbage, mushrooms, potato, cheese, onion, and fruit such as cherries, blueberries, strawberries, or plums. The name “pirogi” comes from the Proto-Slavic word “pir”, which means festivity. This makes sense, because pirogi are traditionally served on holidays or on special occasions such as weddings, although they have become more of an everyday food in recent years. They can be prepared in many fashions. Some people make their pirogi as half circles, resembling potstickers, while others make them square or rectangular, more like ravioli. The method of cooking also varies. Pirogi can be boiled, fried, or baked, or any combination of those methods.

The origin of pirogi is unclear. Many countries claim that pirogi originated there, including Poland, Slovakia, Russia, Latvia, Romania, and others. Due to the similarities of pirogi to Asian dumplings like potstickers, there is speculation that the recipe was brought to Europe by conquerors from Asia such as the Mongols or Persians. Pirogi have spread to other parts of the world with immigrants, and are therefore common in both the United States and Canada. Trader Joe’s sells a couple varieties of frozen pirogi in their stores, but I strongly suggest homemade ones.

In my family, pirogi are a Christmas tradition. My Slovak grandmother fills her pirogi with potato (my favorite!), kapusta (saurkraut) and plums. She boils them and serves them with melted butter, and side dishes include a huge bowl of kapusta and pagash, a flat bread. Two Christmases ago, my grandma passed on the tradition and taught me to make the potato pirogi. It was a very special moment for the two of us. My grandmother and I have never been extremely close and have definitely had some falling-outs, so it was extremely meaningful to have the tradition passed down to me. I am her only grandchild, so I have to be the one to carry on the tradition in our part of the family. The fact that my grandma trusted me and respected me enough to pass down the incredibly important tradition of pirogi meant a lot to me. In addition, we were able to bond while cooking and could set aside our differences. Cooking is one arena where politics doesn’t really matter.


*I spell the word the way my grandmother does. Other spellings include “perogi”, “perogy”, “piroghi”, and most commonly, “pierogi”, the Polish term for the dumplings. Because pirogi are common to so many different countries, the spelling or pronunciation of the word varies widely. In my family we use “pirogi” as the plural form and “pirog” as the singular, though in many cases Americans add an “s” to form the plural.