A note on the spelling of 'perogy'
The
Polish spelling and the spelling most common in the
United States it seems is
pierogi. In
Canada however the accepted spelling is
perogy. Why the difference? This delicious little
dumpling is a well travelled snack and the
English name was derived from whichever culture happened to be most prevalent in the area. In Canada, western Canada at least, we have far more
Mennonite and
Doukhobor immigrants than we do Polish immigrants so our name comes from Mennonite
Plautdietsch and
Russian.
The book
Mennonite Food and Folkways from South Russia tells us that three words '
varenyky', '
perogy', and '
phyrohy' are often used to describe the same thing, but apart from the half-circle dough vehicle these 3 things are very different foods.
The origin of
varenyky is the Russian word for
boil,
varitj. Typically referring to a small half circle dumpling, filled with
cottage cheese and boiled. Varenyky can be stuffed with other things though, such as seasonal fruits and potatoes.
Perogi on the other hand means bake, so perogies are half circle dumplings baked in the oven. A pyrohy is a large perogi and in some cases a large pie.
Pyr is an obsolete
Ukrainian word for banquet.
Despite all of this, in
North America, unless your grandmother is making them, perogy almost always refers to a boiled dumpling stuffed with potato and
cheese.
For the sake of completeness, the Plautdietsch versions of these words are
Varenikje,
Perieschkje, and
Pyrohy. The Russian pronunciation of perogy is
Pirozhki. There is also a
Turkish variant from
Crimea called
manti.
Src:
Mennonite Food and Folkways from South Russia, Volume I - Norma Jost Voth