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Dumplings may be any of a wide variety of dishes, both sweet and savoury, in several different cuisines. They are either made from balls of dough or are small parcels of food encased in pastry, dough, batter, or leaves.
United States
The baked dumpling is popular in American cuisine. These sweet dumplings are made by wrapping fruit, frequently a whole tart apple, in pastry, then baking until the pastry is browned and the filling is tender. As an alternative to simply baking them, these dumplings are surrounded by a sweet sauce in the baking dish, and may be basted during cooking. Popular flavours for apple dumplings include brown sugar, caramel, or cinnamon sauces.
Southern States
Boiled dumplings are made from flour to form a dough. A pot of boiling chicken or turkey broth is used to cook this dough. The size of the dumplings is the choice of the cook and does not affect the taste, but can have an effect on the texture. It is optional to serve with the meat in the dish or on the side. Dumplings can be made with eggs, milk, baking powder or even yeast or just simply from flour and water. Rolled dumplings are rolled thin and cut into small pieces for cooking, while drop dumplings are formed into small balls.British cuisine
Savoury dumplings made from balls of dough are part of traditional British cuisine, and make up a filling meal in winter. The simplest dumplings are made from twice the weight of self raising flour to suet, bound together by cold water to form a dough. Balls of this dough are dropped into a bubbling pot of stew or soup, or into a casserole. They sit, partly submerged in the stew, and expand as they are half-boiled half-steamed for ten minutes or so. The cooked dumplings are airy on the inside and moist on the outside. The dough may be simply flavoured with salt, pepper and herbs, or the dough balls may have a filling such as cheese pressed into their centre.
Other British dumplings call for the addition of breadcrumbs and cheese, and the balls of dough may be rolled in breadcrumbs and fried, rather than cooked in a soup or stew.
These sour-dough dumplings, when sweetened and made with dried fruit and spices can be boiled in water to make a quick dessert. In Scotland, this is called a clootie dumpling, after the cloth that is used to hold it together in the water.
Central Europe
Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia boast a large variety of dumplings, both sweet and savoury. A dumpling is called Klöße in Northern Germany, Knödel in Southern Germany and Austria, knedlíky in the Czech lands and knedličky in Slovakia. Meat dumplings are also called Klopse in North-Eastern Germany. Occasionally, the terms Knöpfe and Nocken are also used.
Potato dumplings are made with raw or boiled potatoes, or a mixture of both, and are often filled with croutons. Bread dumplings are made with white bread and are sometimes shaped like a loaf of bread, and boiled in a napkin, in which case they are known as napkin dumplings (Serviettenknödel). Semolina dumplings are made with semolina. Meat dumplings, bone marrow dumplings and liver dumplings are frequent additions to soup. The most famous German meat dumplings are Königsberger Klopse from East Prussia, which contain anchovy or salted herring and are eaten with caper sauce. Bryndzove halusky, the Slovak national dish, are small dumplings similar to gnocchi, which are served with salty sheep's cheese.
Some sweet dumplings are made by wrapping (food)dough, less frequently potato dough, around whole plums or apricots. Others are made of yeast dough and filled with jam.
Eastern Europe
Perogi of Poland or pyrohy in Ukraine are ravioli-like dumplings filled with savoury or sweet filling. They are usually boiled, often then fried when served. Often served with plenty of sour cream.
Pirozhki, "little perogies", are tiny filled buns, similar to pasties. Another bun of this sort is rasstegai, filled usually with fish and rice.
In Ukrainian cuisine, vushka ("little ears") are folded triangular perogies stuffed with mushrooms. They are traditionally served in the borshch at Christmas Eve dinner. They are equivalent to pelmeni in Russia and uszki in Poland.
In Siberia, especially popular with the Buryat peoples are dumplings called pozi (buuz in Mongolian, from Chinese: 包子; pinyin: bāozi). They are usually made with an unleavened dough, but are often encountered leavened. The traditional filling is meat, but the kind of meat and how it's processed varies. In Mongolia, mutton is favored, and is chopped rather than ground; pork and beef mixes are more popular in Russia. Unlike most other European dumplings, a poza is cooked over steam, not boiled.
Samsa (related to the Indian samosa), cheburiki, and belyashi are all popular imported dumplings.
Chinese cuisine
The jiaozi is a Chinese dumpling which consists of minced meat and chopped vegetables wrapped into a piece of dough. Popular meat fillings include ground pork, ground beef, ground lamb, shrimp, and even fish. Popular mixings are pork with Chinese cabbage, lamb with spring onion, leeks with eggs, etc. Jiaozi are usually boiled or steamed. Jiaozi is a traditional dish for Chinese New Year's Eve. Family members would get together to make dumplings. There are a few ways to wrap the dumplings. One way is to use your two hands to press the wrapping together.
If they are shallow fried, they are called guotie or potstickers. Compared to wontons (dumplings served boiled in a soup), jiaozi have a thicker skin and are longer. Also jiaozi has different wrappings and ways to wrap.
Chinese cuisine includes sweet dumplings. Also commonly found are tangyuan. These are smaller dumplings made with glutinous rice flour and filled with very sweet sesame, peanut or red bean paste. There are also other kinds of dumplings such as Har Kao, Siew Mai, Small Dragon Bun, Pork Bun and Crystal Dumpling.
See also: dim sum for descriptions of several other kinds of dumplings such as gau and taro root dumplings.
Japanese cuisine
Fried Japanese dumplings made from eggs and eaten with dashi are known as akashi no tamagoyaki. Similarly shaped dumplings, but with octopus (or sometimes konnyaku) and flavoured with pickled ginger, negi (welsh onion) and other ingredients, are a Kansai dish known as takoyaki.
The gyōza is the Japanese version of the Chinese jiaozi.
Korean cuisine
Korean meat dumplings are called mandu (만두). They are typically filled with a mixture of ground pork, scallions, and garlic, and eaten boiled; sometimes they are fried.
Indian cuisine
Indian dumplings are called samosas, and are usually vegetarian. They generally consist of a fried triangular pastry shell stuffed with potatoes, onions and peas. Karanji are sweet dumplings made of soya flour and stuffed with dry coconut delicacies, and are a popular dish among the Maharastrians and the South Indians.
Himalayan cuisine
In Nepal, Tibet and Sikkim, steamed dumplings known as momos are a popular snack. They are similar to the Chinese jiaozi. Many different fillings, both meat-based and vegetarian, are common.
Jewish Cuisine
See Kreplach
"Dumpling"