History of dumplings. Who Invented Dumplings? Where did dumplings come from (whose dish)

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Any minced meat, fish and vegetables, in any variations, carefully wrapped in the thinnest dough, is a traditional dish for the national cuisines of several peoples. Analogues of dumplings, such as khinkali, sorcerers, manti, jiao chi, have long been known to world culinary. So where did dumplings come from? Whose dish? The history of this amazing and much-loved product remains dark and unclear. Russian and Siberian cuisines have long recognized dumplings as their own.

So who invented dumplings? We have to admit that this dish originally has Chinese roots. Today, in this cuisine with its history of five millennia, there are analogues of almost every modern dish. The history of dumplings takes us to a very distant past. But only now, no one will dare to dispute the fact that it is in Russia that this dish is the most popular.

So are dumplings a Russian dish or not? The traditional idea of their history is as follows: they were brought into Russian cuisine by the peoples who once inhabited the Urals. Russians appeared in these parts in the XIV-XV centuries. And only inas an idea, the theory is put forward that among the Komi, Permians, Siberian Tatars and other peoples in the European north-east of Russia, dumplings appeared from China and other ancient states of Asia.

Dumplings: origin story

One thing is obvious, dumplings got to Russia by a difficult, even roundabout way. So who was the first to come up with this unusually tasty and so common dish, native to different national cuisines, peoples and countries? And not many culinary inventions are ready to boast of this. So what will the history of dumplings tell us?

Plato's treatise called "Feast" (385-380 BC) describes a dish that painfully resembles dumplings - pieces of meat wrapped in noodles. And the ancient Roman Petronius writes about him. And in the comedy of Aristophanes, a contemporary of Plato, it is said that at the feast the nobility treated fried test bags stuffed with other products.

But still, culinary historians agree that it was China that “dumplings” Europe.

Russian history of dumplings

There are many versions of the appearance of dumplings on Russian soil. First of all, it is worth recalling that until the 1820s. there is no mention of dumplings in any Russian cookbook. Even the "Soldier's Kitchen" of 1786, the most popular cookbook by S. Drukovtsev, never mentions them

Someone explains this by the fact that for too long dumplings in the Ural and Siberian cuisines were considered a regional dish, and gained nationwide fame only in the 19th century.

And some argue that this cuisine was not particularly recognized by the Great Russians from the center of Russia.

Dumpling artifacts

A well-known author of culinary articles of that time, Ekaterina Avdeeva, in 1837 wrote about "dumplings" as a word that was used in Siberia. That in Russia they are called ears, that they are made from pasta dough with chopped beef, also with mushrooms or fish, they are frozen and they turn into pebbles. In this form, they are taken on the road, and as soon as they are lowered into boiling water, the food is ready and very tasty.

If we turn to the documents of an earlier time, it is worth reading a magazine review of 1830 of the common words of the inhabitants of the Orenburg province, where the author has to compare them with Ukrainian dumplings to describe dumplings. He says that dumplings (pelyany or permeni) look like tiny boiled pies, “a kind of Little Russian dumplings, but not with cheese, but with beef”, which are the favorite food for Permians.

The history of dumplings tells that in 1817 this dish was still a real exotic. This is how his collegiate adviser N. Semivsky described it: “Dumplings, small pies with minced meat or stuffing, prepared following the example of the Chinese. They are good especially in winter, they must be boiled in water. A very good travel soup is made from dumplings. They are eaten boiled with red vinegar.”

Although there are other documents. "Painting for the royal dishes" (1610-1613) contains a mention of "mantu with lamb". And Karamzin, in stories about food that was on the table of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, mentionsmanti.

Four nations fighting for dumplings

Disputes and disagreements over whose national dish dumplings have not subsided to this day.

Finno-Ugric peoples living in the Cis-Urals (Udmurts, Komi-Permyaks)

The most important evidence that dumplings should be considered their invention is the very word “dumplings” for them. It translates as "ear-bread". Yes, and the dumpling looks like an ear. It is perfectly stored in the winter in an ordinary bag, if left in the cold, in a cellar or hallway. Yes, and cooking dumplings is easy. And for the filling, you could take the meat of sacrificial animals, since the inhabitants of the Urals have enough rituals of animal sacrifice.

Chinese

Although the word "dumpling" is Finno-Ugric, but this food is exclusively Chinese, moreover, a festive New Year's food. Jiaoqi in China is prepared with a wide variety of fillings that the Chinese consider edible. And their meat is not the most important thing. Jiaoqi are similar in shape to a coin, they even have a hole in the middle, a real symbol of prosperity, a wish for he alth and we alth.

Siberians

These are convinced that only in Siberia the most generous dumplings are the original food of the Siberian. The thinnest layer of dough and filling, to which finely crushed ice is added - and here you have huge amounts of product after cattle are slaughtered or hunting was successful. Yes, and you can store all the time that the frosts hold.

Minced meat, which is wrapped in dough cakes, is made only from minced meat, s alt … and ice. And no bulbs andgarlic, as is customary in the European part of Russia. Only, yielding to modern taste, pepper is added.

Mongols

It was they, who rode on cavalry throughout Southern Siberia and the Urals, not leaving China alone for a long time, tied together all these peoples and adopted the recipe. For nomadic pastoralists, they serve as an excellent semi-finished product, which is a real salvation on a long hike. The Mongols will be very surprised if someone, when asked about whose national dish dumplings, will claim that it is not theirs.

So who is the author?

So the question of who invented dumplings is both difficult and simple to answer. The idea of wrapping meat in dough is so obvious that anyone could come up with: the Chinese in China, the Russians in Russia, the Greeks in Greece, the Mongols in Mongolia, and the Germans in Germany. By the way, the latter are convinced that the authors of the dumplings are Protestant monks. In besieged fortresses, they allowed people to survive.

National peculiarities

To cook dumplings today, it is enough to buy a ready-made semi-finished product in the store and cook, steam, fry at home. But the recipe for delicious dumplings should be in the arsenal of every housewife.

How to make dumplings

Rarely today there is a house where dumplings are made like in the old days, almost festively and in a family way. When the head of the family cuts the minced meat in a meat grinder, the hostess prepares the dough and then all the household members put the filling into circles of dough, squeezed out with spoons, where with cups or glasses. The dumplings curled up and stuck together. Sometimes the rolled dough is cut into even squares. In this way, you avoid cuttings and save time.

By the way, for true craftsmen, any cutting is completely unacceptable. No one will convince them that only from rolled out pieces of dough separately for each dumpling can you make real dumplings. And the smaller they are, the tastier.

This seems to be the simplest dish. But over the entire period of fame and popularity of dumplings in Russia, many different recipes for their preparation have appeared. It has long been known that the classic Siberian dumplings can also be prepared in different ways.

All the differences are, first of all, in the filling: it can be beef with a small addition of fat or fatter pork and, of course, onions and crushed ice. So the filling will not stick to your hands when sculpting, and the dumplings remain juicy.

For dumplings, the shape remains very important. After all, she was the one who gave it its name. And what should it be? Any housewife will say that it is necessary to mold a dumpling like a plump crescent and easily, without pulling too hard, connect the ends.

Siberian dumplings

To prepare the dough for them, only flour with water is taken. That's right, no s alt. Flour is poured in a slide, and almost ice water is poured into the recess in it. The dough is kneaded stiffly, easily lagging behind the hands. Now it should lie down for half an hour, covered with a damp towel.

Three types of meat are used: beef, pork (it is chosen with lard), sukhatin. And again without s alt, without onions and other spices. Ground meatfinely chopped.

But dressings for dumplings can be anything: simple sour cream, ghee, carrots, onions, garlic, etc.

Chinese dumplings

Dough is traditionally kneaded with flour and water. But the filling is chosen very different: meat, vegetables, eggs with leeks, meat with vegetables. The most famous dumplings in China are “lotus on the water”, which is the most complex kind, hand-molded with 13 holes, or “empress mother”, stuffed with chicken and so small that they resemble pearls.

Ural dumplings

It is much more correct in this case, actually, to talk about dumplings. In Russia, two words were mixed up - “dumplings” and “Permyani” (Permyak food) - and dumplings, so loved by many, have survived to this day. And for those who live in the Urals, they have been a ritual dish for a very long time, a real symbol of livestock sacrifice. By the way, a partridge egg or other game could have been added to the dough.

Ural dumplings - a dish that is prepared as follows. The meat in the filling is formed in a strict proportion: beef - 45%, lamb - 35%, pork - 20%. Pepper and a large amount of onion were also added to the minced meat. So a delicious broth accumulated inside each dumpling. Minced meat was certainly prepared exclusively in a wooden trough with the help of a cut. The dumplings themselves were steamed, it was not customary to boil them in water or broth.

When this recipe for delicious dumplings was adopted by the Tatars, their dish was exclusively lamb. The Russians came up with the idea of mixing equal parts beef with pork.

How dumplings are cooked

To cook dumplings, you need to boil water, s alt it, add bay leaves and onions, and then throw in the dumplings themselves.

But it is much better if there is meat broth cooked on the bone. If you do not cook in it, then simply dip the already cooked dumplings into it. Their taste will become much better and richer.

One can argue for a long time whether dumplings are a traditional Russian dish or not. How many people - so many opinions. But the fact that dumplings for a Russian person is a real holiday is undeniable. If they are molded in the family circle, this is a double holiday. Because such a product will certainly keep the warmth of the hands and hearts that prepared them. It has a very special taste that cannot be compared with the semi-finished product from a neighboring store.

Whatever people consider this dish to be theirs, they will preserve and preserve their own old recipes for a long time, create new ones, and the next generations will eat and praise such delicious dumplings. The origin story was told to the reader in the article. Now, whoever has an appetite, go cook dumplings!