Holy Pierogi!

These Polish dumplings are often filled with mashed potatoes and cheese, but there are as many varieties of pierogi as there are people who love them. Anney and Lauren dig into the history and culture of the pierogi.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Hello, I'm welcome to favorite production of iHeart Radio and
Stuff Media. I'm Anny Rees and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and
today we're talking about paroguey. Yeah. A lot of you
have written in requested this one, especially recently, so we
were only too happy to do it. Oh. Absolutely, proguey
are one of my favorite foods. They are delicious. I

(00:27):
only had them for the first time like a year ago,
when I bought him a D and D and blew
my mind so good? Why did I not try anyone?
I was in Poland? What okay, you always try the
local dumpling. I know. I remember I had something else.
I can't recall what it is, but it was a

(00:47):
local delicacy and everyone was telling me I had to
get that thing, but I didn't get parogue. Well, there's
still Poland distilled there. You can go back. I could return. Yeah,
there are a few places in Atlanta that make them,
but I've every time I've ordered them, they take the
order and they come back a couple of minutes later.
I always say they're out. It's the curse. Yeah, I guess,

(01:08):
I guess. I've seen him on a couple of menus
around town. I'm um. I grew up with them, being
from Ohio and Pennsylvania. My my dad would make them
at home, usually the frozen kind, but because he was
not a fan of rolling out dough. But but yeah, yeah,
just box and mrs ts boiling a quick second pan
from and butter so good. I found I found some

(01:31):
at our new local Kroger and they're waiting in my freezer. Yes,
but I suppose this brings us to our question parokey
Well what are they? Well, parokey are a type of
filled dumpling, and the singular in Polish, which is where
we got the word from, is piruge, perugi being the plural.

(01:55):
I think I'm saying that right, um, So I'm going
to try to roll with not pluralizing by adding an
S on the end. But that's how we always said
it when I was growing up, so it's pretty common
in the United States. It is it is? Yeah anyway, okay, yes, uh?
What it is. It's a type of dumpling um that
the dough used for the wrappers a little bit on
the thick end of the dumpling spectrum. Um. It's made
with wheat flour, usually some kind of egg yolk, or

(02:17):
milk or sour cream in there to make it chewy
and tender. They're usually half circle in shape, made by
folding over around over like a lump of filling, and
that filling can be a number of things. Mashed potato
is sort of the baseline in the United States, to
which you might add cheeses, sautet onions, and or cooked bacon.
Other traditional fillings though, include ground meat or sour crout

(02:39):
and mushrooms or soft fresh cheese like like farmers cheese
or cottage cheese. And you can also make them sweet
with berries and sweet and fresh cheeses. I mean, of course,
you can put anything you want in there, like no
one stopping you. And people have, yes, definitely have absolutely
um all the fillings that are going to be pre cooked,
because when you prepare parrogi, you're you're just cooking the

(03:01):
dough and and then just heating the interior through. So
you boil them just until they're tender, and can serve
them either straight like that or take that extra step
pan frying them, usually in butter afterwards, to to brown
the dough and give it this outer layer of crispness
that just contrasts really well. With the tenderness of the
dumpling and the soft fillings. Um. Yeah, the result is

(03:23):
just this little dream of a dumpling. Um. Like. The
dough puffs up a little bit as it cooks, and
they just feel like light and fluffy, but still have
that satisfying like pasta, like chew. Traditionally, they're served with
sour cream for dipping and often sauteed onions and bits
of bacon, and can be served either as a side
dish or a main dish. The sweet kind might be

(03:43):
served with jam or a fruit sauce, or just to
sprinkle powdered sugar, and can also be eaten as a
main course lunch more often than dinner, um, or as
a dessert. One of the favorite facts. I don't know
if this is true, but anyone from Poland knows can verify,
please do. But I read that parag is generally standard
because it's understood you're never just going to have one,
like you're always going to have more than one. Oh yeah,

(04:06):
there's no singular of Yeah, that's adorable. I hope that's true.
You can also make baked parokey um, maybe with yeast
in the dough to give it some rise, resulting in
more like pastry like sort of thing, sort of like
an ampanada m or you can deep frim because why
not potato knishes are are related? Oh gosh, now I

(04:26):
really want to do an episode on kinnishes. Um. And
of course all the things that I just said very widely,
like everyone has their own family recipe and preference. Um.
Some people think that putting egg or dairy in the
dough is ridiculous. Ridiculous, will not stand for it. Okay,
so you know your parokee mileage may vary. Well, okay,

(04:49):
that makes sense. I guess, um. What about nutrition? Uh,
dumplings are pretty much never a healthy food unless you're
talking about mental health, which is to totally valid okay,
um um. I mean it depends on the filling and
how you prepare them. But you're usually talking about more
carbs and fat than like protein and micronutrients. So like

(05:10):
they will fill you up, boy, how do they will?
But um to help keep you going? Uh, they're best
paired with a vegetable maybe a protein, so maybe bake
on Yeah exactly. Oh, I see you do have some
numbers for you. Parokee are eaten throughout Eastern Europe in
parts of the United States and Canada, and the rest

(05:31):
of Europe too, but they are particularly associated with Poland, yes,
where they are really popular item at holidays, all kinds
of holidays, weddings, funerals, all of it. On Christmas Eve,
for example, many make and eat a traditional proge called
usca or little ears. And these are smaller parokee stuffed
with mushrooms and small bowls of borsched. Um. I think

(05:52):
it's little Yeah, they do look like little ears. Yeah.
They are a major comfort and nostalgic food, all kinds
of peroge oh yeah um. They're also popular in Catholic
communities during Lent and on Fridays when they don't eat meat.
And there's also another variation called lazy parogue, which have
mashed potato and cheese um incorporated directly into the dough.

(06:13):
So you make them like like yilki oh no filling,
just yeah, it still sounds good to me. Right. You
can buy frozen parougue, as I was saying. The leading
brand by far in the United States is mrs ts
which as was selling very nearly six million boxes of
parouge per year. It was picked over when I went

(06:35):
I had trouble finding them, and it is because they
were all the way towards back. Yeah, people going for it.
There are Parogue festivals throughout Poland also a handful in
the US Parogue fest and Winding Indiana in July. Um
there's also one in Lawrenceville, Georgia. And it was on
my birthday this year, and I didn't know about man
next year, gosh, next year. Okay. Speaking of something I

(07:00):
really want to check out, Pittsburgh has the Great Parogi
Race mascot race during the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball games featuring
Oliver onion cheese, chester, jalapeno, Hannah saracut, salt pizza, penny bacon,
burt and potato peate of course, of course, and forget
about potato peat Yeah. And people do you get real

(07:21):
wild with the fillings these days? Like Italian style with
a with a sweet peppers and mozzarella, or or with
eggplant um barbecue perogi, casadilla, perogi, Cajun perogue, reuben, peroge
bourbon meatball parogui. These are all from a place called
the Parogi Palace, which is in Cleveland, of course, a

(07:41):
small town in Alberta, Canada, is the proud owner of
a twenty seven ft perogue statues, and in the nineties
their mayor pushed to get the parogue on the two
dollar coins. When he was making the case for it,
he said, why choose the polar bear? The rest mounts
was it's strong, to which the mayor responded, but if

(08:03):
it doesn't have any parog ees to eat, it's not
going to be strong very long is. It did not pass. Surprisingly,
m a fork was later added to the statute to
clarify what it was because it would stop it which
and go like what was I mean? The funk would help,
but I still might not be sure what I'm not sure? Yeah,

(08:24):
I mean I knew it was. It was labeled peroge statue,
so I was like, oh, it's a pero statue. But
if I just happened upon it, I think I would
also be confused. Very fair. Um. Parogis are a popular
church fundraiser food in parts of the United States. Um,
And okay, well this isn't an official like world record
or anything. There is expression Orthodox Cathedral St. John's in Mayfield,

(08:46):
Pennsylvania that makes fifteen thousand parogy every ash Wednesday. A
church representative told the Associated Press, we don't strive for
fifteen thousand. We limit ourselves to fifteen thousand. I love it.
Just have a big party and like everyone gets together
and does the thing. Um Um. Speaking of churches and

(09:09):
Ohio woman back in two thousand five saw the face
of Jesus on a perogue e and she sold it
on eBay for one thou seventy five. That's a future episode.
What happens to those foods. I'm assuming they don't get eaten.
They maybe they I'm not sure. I feel like by
the time it takes you to like sell a thing

(09:31):
on eBay, a perogue e isn't really good anymore unless
you've stabilized it in some way. That would also probably
not make it good anymore. I wonder if there's a
museum somewhere that just has these faces and foods museum
or something. I never thought about it for their research. Yes,
another time. There is a Guinness record for the largest

(09:55):
perogue e. Um. It's for a one twenty three pound
specimen that's about fifty six kilo that was made in Pittsburgh.
Larger peroukey have been reported, though. Um. There was this
team and in Mantua Ohio. That made a two pound
peroukeyen that's about nine tikilos um. This was at the

(10:15):
manto A Potato Festival. They like created this custom boiling
pan for it, and it took ten people to wrangle
the paroche into a board. After boiling um, they like
dumped a bucket of butter on it and then used
a blowtorch to create the crispy crust. This is terrifying
and impressive. And they served it with fifty pounds of

(10:38):
onions cooked in six pounds more butter. Oh whoa How
long did it take for that to get boiling? Oh
I'm not I'm not sure. I didn't see that. I
mean I get impatient small pots to boil. Right, I'm like, oh,
it's been three minutes, It's really only been tents. Yeah.

(11:03):
And another record, um the Guinness record for fastest paroguey making,
which was set just this past December by a Polish woman.
She made one thousand and sixty six paroche in an hour.
That is one perogue every three point four seconds. Dang, yeah, dude, yeah. Um.

(11:23):
She did this at the annual Plum Festival in southern Poland.
So the filling for these parouge was smoked plumbs um
and technically she only needed a thousand to set the record,
but she like wanted to make extras to be safe
in case any like broke open during during cooking. Gotta
have a contingency plan. Yeah, yeah, she had a sixty
six perogue contingency plan. Good succeeded. Parokee Restaurant tours, by

(11:47):
the way, will tell you, um that the average person
can make about a hundred an hour, and like an
expert can do like a hundred and fifty. So this
is truly impressive. Impressive. I mean I was impressed prior
to that knowledge, but now I'm even more impressed. Uh yeah,

(12:07):
and we have some parokee history for you. We do,
but first we're going to take a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsors, Yes,
thank you. So dumplings as a larger category have existed

(12:29):
all around the world, originating at all kinds of different times,
I believe when the person who wrote in suggesting parouei
also suggests to be doing mini series on different types
of dumplings any time, any time, there are don start
today my favorite foods. So yes, just want to put
that out there. We're focusing specifically on Parouge, but the

(12:51):
dumpling itself is a much wider topic. Yes, Paroe probably
arrived to what is now Poland in the century, most
likely an import from what is now Ukraine. Yeah. Yeah,
The concept of dumplings is thought to have like journeyed
west into Eastern Europe, first now Ukraine, then Poland from China. Yes,

(13:13):
some stories credit a specific person, the Hyacinth of Poland,
a monk that went on to be known as the
patron saint of Peroge. That is amazing. I had no idea.
I didn't either. The universe is more glorious today for
us knowing it is it is. The story goes he
got this title after advising the people of a small

(13:33):
village to pray. They did so, and the next day
the sun was out and the crops flourish. Had been
hailing and raining bad weather, so they prayed good weather
to thank him. The townspeople made Perogue with the crops
that resulted from this flourishing. In a different version of
the tale, he's said Peroge to starving people during a
century invasion. Today, the winners of a Paroge cooking contest

(13:57):
at um at krak Goof's annual Parokee Festival. Take home
a statue of St. Jessic with PAROKEI so much better
than an Oscar. Also amazing thing I found the saying St.
Hyacinth and his parogues equals holy smokes. Oh my gosh. Yes,

(14:23):
that is excellent, excellent. Need to start incorporating that daily language.
I want it. I'm going to do it perfect um.
Other sources do suggest that Marco Polo might have introduced
the idea of dumplings at large after his travels to China,
But yeah, they certainly existed in China prior to this,
whatever the case. Yes, the first written progue recipes appeared

(14:46):
in the book Compendium for Colorum chop, kidneys, greens, veal,
fat and nutmeg that was in the Feeling Hum. There's
also a recipe in there for a baked version that
was sweet, that was old, with preserves made from rose
and elder flower. No right, very fancy. The fillings reflected

(15:06):
the needs and resources of the people who made the parogy.
Well off folks stuffed them with thin, expensive ingredients like fruit, sugar,
and spices, while the less well off stuffed them with
whatever they had on hand. Yeah, the word parogy popped
up an English writing start of the eighteen fifties, um
from Yiddish speaking immigrants and Moologists disagree on the origin

(15:27):
of the word. They think it's either related to um
ta pie, which makes sense, it's sort of like a
tiny pie, or to this Protoslavic word for feast or party.
Oh yeah, all is good that when it comes to
perogi rouski, the variety filled with fresh white farmer's cheese
and potatoes, those actually did not originate in Russia. They

(15:50):
instead came from pre war Poland now Ukraine. Prior to
Ukrainians called them Polish parochi. The ruski most likely was
a result of the post World War Two migration of
Polls from western Ukraine to west of Poland. Waves of
Polish immigrants arrived in the US during the eighteen eighties
to the nineteen twenties and again after World War Two,

(16:12):
introducing Americans to parogue. For a while, these were mostly
eaten within Polish homes with recipes that had been passed
down for generations, but they gained popularity locally in part
thanks to their presence at charity fundraisers during the nineteen forties,
and as more and more people got a taste of them,
they continue to spread because of course they did, because

(16:34):
they're delicious, to the point that peroge were in American
and Canadian frozen food aisles in the nineteen sixties. Yeah yeah,
Mrs t S got their start in nineteen fifty two.
Back in Poland, modernization sort of pushed the time and
labor intensive process of making parogue at home to the wayside,
often turning people off and turned to frozen options as well.

(16:55):
If not, folks might instead go to what we're called
milk bars, and these were in a spensive government subsidized
cafeterias in communist Poland. These were one of the few
approved places for eating out, as their menus of traditional
food items stuck to strict government regulations around what was available.
That meant that when communism ended in Poland in people

(17:18):
were eager to try other things. Just to give you
an idea. Three years later, when the first McDonald's opened
its doors in that country, it sold more in one
day than any other McDonald's in the company's history at
that point. Yeah, yeah, But the people of Poland started
coming back to traditional Polish food in the two thousands,

(17:39):
while also allowing room for experimentation with those traditional foods.
So you see both. You kind of see in parallel
the traditional continuing people eating those but also putting all
kinds of things in there. Yes, and the whole restaurants
popping up that are devoted to them. And Okay, we

(17:59):
need to go to Pittsburg. Okay, we need to try
as many types of poges as possible and go to
one of those games so we can watch the race. Yes,
Savor goes to the baseball game. It's about time. I
bet they have parog at that stay. They better, I know, right,

(18:21):
that would be rude. That would be rude. You care
have a perokee race and then deny me poke? Indeed,
it's inhumane and I won't stand for That's our statement.
If we arrive and there no progy, there will be
hell to pay. Saver will come down on you with
all of their my you thought we were pleasant. Not

(18:42):
if there's no parogy, we thought there would be. So
with that threatened place, watch out, Pittsburgh, We're coming for
you and all your parog Oh my gosh. That's about
all we have to say about parokee. We do have
a little bit more for you, but first we've got

(19:02):
one more quick break for a word from our sponsor,
and we're back. Thank you, sponsor, Yes, thank you, and
we're back with yes. Rebecca wrote, I was reading one

(19:28):
of my daily newsletters and stubbled upon this gym of
an article about Plenty. I got so excited to find
out some new news about our old buddy and thought
you might as well. And she was referencing a Smithsonian
article from January so very recent about the discovery of
a two thousand year old skull that might belong to
our good pal Plenty. Yes, great raid Um pompeis and

(19:51):
is all kinds of things, so recommend checking it out. Yeah,
still still popping up, bloody. Antoinette wrote, I am often
reminded of funny stories while listening to Savor, but normally
forget about them by the end. I didn't want that
to happen to this thought, so I am typing this
while listening to the Food Heists episode. I have two
petty food thieves in my life. The first, less funny

(20:14):
one is my grandfather. We lived in rural ish Illinois
where there were commercial del Monte fields mixed in with
local farmers fields. When my grandfather was alive, he would
take corn from the field occasionally, but always made sure
it was a del Monte field as if that lessened
to the crime, and would buy from the local farmers.
So I totally understand how there can be police forces

(20:35):
and detectives for agriculture. If one grumpy old man was
doing it, there's probably a scattered army of them committing
petty acts of thievery against del Monte. The second thief
at the other end of the age spectrum is my
family friend's daughter, Lola, the cheese thief. Her mom had
her in the front basket of the shopping cart at
the grocery store. Lolo, who was a young toddler, sat

(20:57):
quietly with her secret the whole time until they got
to the car and her mother started to load the
rightfully purchased groceries into the car, and Lola pulled out
a block of cheese from under her shirt, laughing. Her
mother was horrified, and Lola's only explanation was that she
liked cheese. Unfortunately it was a spicy pepper and Jack cheese,

(21:17):
so I couldn't even enjoy the taste. Of her crime.
I mean, that's justice right there. That is steal it,
can't eat it, can't have it. Yeah, and then you
just have to think on your failure and hopefully learn
from your mistakes and steal the right kind of cheese.
I had a friend and she thought, you know what,

(21:39):
the those restaurants where you take the bill and you
come and pay and um. At this particular restaurant and
a lot of them, a lot of other restaurants like it.
They have the York peppermint patties. They're cheap. Yeah, she
thought those were free, and I saw her just taking
a bunch of them once a walk. Oh my god,

(22:03):
I'm so sorry. I had to be known is free? No?
No as a big famous the story five sets that
was high school. You know, it's it's still a time

(22:24):
of learning. We're all students of life, the students of life. Yes,
constantly learning and unlearning and relearning. Yes, yes, which is beautiful,
if not sometimes exhausting, definitely, And we love learning from
you listeners. So thanks to both of them for ating in.
If you would like to write to us, you can

(22:45):
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(23:05):
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