Dumplings Around the World
The geographical spread of the dumpling covers most of the globe, from the Alpine regions of Europe to the Mongolian steppes; from sub-Saharan Africa to rural Japan; and from the maize fields of Latin America to Chinese communities throughout the world. Dumplings have always coexisted as versions of an unpretentious, filling peasant food, making small amounts of meat stretch far enough to feed large families and communities, or as elaborate, refined parcels of dough, wrapped around delicate fillings and served for special occasions.
When looking at the history of the dumpling, it is possible to draw a historical parallel with the well-known debate about whether Italian spaghetti came before or after Chinese noodles. In fact, some types of filled dumpling carry with them interesting questions that remain largely unanswered: is there a documented link between Italian ravioli, Russian pelmeni, Central Asian manti and Chinese wontons? To what extent did Marco Polo, or any other Venetian merchant for that matter, play a part in culinary exchange and influence between the spice-rich Far East and the established traditions of European kitchens?
The dumpling has developed independently in many different parts of the world through the use of common ingredients. Travel and commercial exchanges have contributed to the transfer of certain shapes and combinations of tastes from country to country and across continents.
Travel and commercial exchanges along the Silk Road have influenced the evolution of dumplings.
Filled dumplings, including Italian ravioli, are a versatile dish that can be served with very simple sauces or just a drizzle of olive oil.
The intensive military and commercial activities of the Repubbliche Marinare (the city-states, including Genoa, Pisa and Venice, that flourished in Italy between the tenth and thirteenth centuries) acted as a catalyst for cultural and culinary exchange, as merchants and crusaders alike travelled across the Mediterranean and ventured further into the Middle and Far East than ever before. For example, during the twelfth century ravioli, a square dumpling made of a filling sealed between two layers of thin pasta, began to spread from Genoa to Parma and Venice, and from there to other regions in Europe, in particular through Hungary, Poland and Bohemia. Medieval commercial fairs provided an opportunity for merchants to exchange goods and currencies, and attracted crowds from nearby and faraway towns and villages. Food and drink constituted a big aspect of these commercially motivated and extremely lively gatherings, which owed their popularity also to the presence of acrobats, storytellers, magicians and women of ill repute. The frequent fairs held in Genoa’s harbour, then an important centre of commerce in the Mediterranean, certainly played a big role in extending the popularity of ravioli among sailors and merchants from further afield.
In the thirteenth century Genovese and Venetian merchants, including Marco Polo’s family, travelled east to conduct commercial dealings and exploration. Marco Polo’s account of his incredibly exotic journey, whether fully founded on personal experience or embellished with tales heard along the way, provided inspiration for countless generations of explorers and travellers, as well as insight into the way of life of the nomadic Tartars, or Mongols, including their ceremonies, travels, food and social rules. As Marco Polo was travelling eastwards, the Mongols, led by Ghengis Khan, were travelling west across the steppes of Central Asia, conquering neighbouring civilizations and deriving sustenance from dumplings filled with mutton, yak and horse meat, and boiled on open campfires. For Ghengis Khan’s Mongols, as for today’s Central Asian nomadic populations, meat-based dumplings were an important part of the diet together with dairy products including goat’s and mare’s milk, cream and cheese.
Uzbek manti, a staple of Central Asia and the Middle East, served with yoghurt and dill.
Eastern European dumplings such as Polish pierogi, Russian pelmeni and Ukrainian varenyky are very similar in shape, texture and filling.
Central Asia gradually became a melting pot for different traditions of filled dumpling, as commercial exchange and geopolitical developments brought ingredients and recipes from Italy, China and Mongolia into contact with traditional varieties already present in the region. It is notable that in Turkey dumplings are also called Tatar böregi (Tartar pasties), and significant common threads across Central Asia are the filling of minced lamb, often charged with black pepper and other spices, and the habit of smothering dumplings in garlic, yoghurt or sour milk.
Claudia Roden, a food writer particularly knowledgeable about Middle Eastern and Jewish cooking, recognizes the strong connection between Italian and Central Asian dumplings in The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand and Vilna to the Present Day (1997):
Pasta came to Poland as a result of Italian presence at the royal courts and also by way of Central Asia. That may be why the cheese kreplach [a type of filled dumpling], sauced with sour cream, owes more to the Turkish-Mongolian manti with yoghurt poured over than to Italian ravioli or cappelletti.
The fact that Russian pelmeni is filled with a mixture of meats strongly flavoured with black pepper and spices not native to Russia is also often used to corroborate the theory that pelmeni originated in China and was carried by the Mongols to Siberia, the Urals and as far as Anatolia and Eastern Europe. However, although influences from the Far East are very plausible, the origin of the Russian dumpling is not clear. One possibility is that it originated in the Urals as pieces of meat wrapped in very thin bread called pel’nyan’, which means, in native languages Komi and Mansi, ‘bread ear’. It was then spread across Central Asia by Russian explorers and pioneers. It is also possible that it was developed by hunters, who needed light, easy-to-prepare, nourishing food to take with them on long hunting trips. Pelmeni fitted the purpose, as it keeps for a long time in sub-zero temperatures and is quickly boiled in pots of water over an open fire.
Other types of dumpling can be found in eastern Europe. These include Ukrainian varenyky, which derives its name from the verb ‘to boil’, and Polish pierogi, which is made with various fillings, one of which is practically identical to the Russian dumpling and aptly named Russkie pierogi. However, the word pyrogi, both in Russia and in Ukraine, describes not a dumpling but a type of fluffy baked bun generally filled with fruit or poppy seeds.
The same phenomenon as that in Central Asia can be easily mapped out across Africa, South America and Northern Europe. In these regions, a variety of very similar unfilled dumplings developed at first independently in different places, making use of common and plentiful ingredients, then spread across each continent, giving rise to interesting hybrid recipes.
On the African continent, unfilled dumplings of similar appearance and taste can be found under different names in a number of countries in the west, east and south. They are a staple and consist of the local carbohydrate source – yam, sweet potato, sorghum, millet, cassava or maize (both originally from South America) – cooked, pounded, shaped into dumplings and served with stewed or roasted meat, fish or vegetables. Kenkey, a popular variety in West Africa made of a maize sourdough wrapped in banana leaves and steamed, is equally common in the Caribbean as mangu or mofongo. In South Africa sweet souskluitjies are a favourite among Afrikaans children; these are quite different from dumplings found elsewhere on the continent as they are made with self-raising flour, egg and milk, boiled in plenty of water and served in a very sweet cinnamon syrup.
In Latin America where the staple food is maize, dumplings – either filled (with meat, cheese or raisins and dried fruit) or unfilled – are made with masa, a dough of maize flour and limewater, wrapped in banana leaves and steamed. The name varies from tamales to humitas, depending on the country.
Polish potato balls with meat and pumpkin filling.
Hungarian knodli with chicken and paprika stew.
In Central and Northern Europe, where one of the main sources of carbohydrate is the potato, the tuber is boiled and mashed, or grated when still raw, and then combined into dumplings bound by egg, fat or milk. Dumplings are then shaped into balls or ellipses and boiled in water. Although very similar, they have many different names, in various languages and local dialects, that often mean ‘potato ball’, ‘potato cake’ or ‘potato dumpling’. Some examples are Norwegian potet klub and potetball, Polish kopytka, German Kartoffelkloesse and Danish frikasseboller.
Jewish dumplings also developed a distinct identity through the interaction of Jewish communities with ingredients, foods and traditions around the world, mainly in different parts of Europe and the Middle East, following the diaspora. The best-known Jewish dumplings are the unfilled knaidl (matzah balls) and the filled kreplach. Claudia Roden writes:
The Yiddish word knaidl is derived from the German Knödel, meaning ‘dumpling’. Since the early Middle Ages, dumplings of all kinds have been popular in German, Czech and Austrian cooking, and came into the Jewish diet. All over Eastern Europe they epitomize the robust peasant and poor man’s food.
Stuffed pasta shaped like giant cappelletti or tortellini came to the Jews of Germany through Venice in the early fourteenth century.
The birthplace of Asian dumplings is China, where the thousands of combinations of different shapes, fillings and recipes can be broadly grouped into three types: wontons, jiaozi and baozi. Because of the difficulty of transliteration and translation, not to mention regional differences that are sometimes substantial and sometimes very subtle, it is difficult to summarise in a few words the traits of these Chinese specialities. However, the following should serve as a very general description: wonton is made of a very thin dough wrapper and usually served in a broth or steamed. Jiaozi are made of a thick and chewy dough, and shaped like a horn or a big Brazil nut. It is usually steamed or boiled and served with a soy-based or hot chilli dip; pan-fried jiaozi are known as guotie (pot-stickers). Baozi are filled buns made of a fluffy, bread-like dough and steamed. In certain parts of China they are called mantou, although the name mantou mainly refers to plain, unfilled baozi.
The Dumpling Seller, c. 1790, watercolour and ink on paper, Guangzhou, China. This painting is from a set of 100 that depict different trades and occupations in Canton. Paintings such as this were made for Europeans eager to find out more about China.
From China, the wonton travelled west through the Mongolian steppes and east to Korea before crossing the sea, and became a popular staple food in Japan under the name gyoza. At the same time the baozi also travelled and became established, under different names, in other Far Eastern countries and as far as Hawaii. The Hawaiian version is known as manapua and was brought to these Pacific islands by Chinese migrants in search of work, who started selling it on the streets, initially walking around with baskets of steaming filled dumplings and then selling from vans parked at street corners and on popular beaches. Now manapua is also available in bakeries, restaurants and supermarkets.
Chinese pan-fried jiaozi, or pot-stickers, are richly flavoured with garlic.
As is the case with the Chinese dumplings in Hawaii, many food exchanges are a direct consequence of the historical and economic factors that are behind migration. With migrant populations come suitcases and trunks, soon followed by crates and containers, of traditional foods from their countries and regions of origin. For example, dumplings became an established food in North America after migrants from Italy, Germany and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe reached the New World at the same time as waves of migrants from China and other Asian countries. It is curious that in the USA ‘ravs’, originally an Italo-American contraction of the word ravioli, became a common term sloppily extended to cover any type of filled dumpling that came from outside the country, irrespective of whether it is Italian ravioli, Polish pierogi or Russian pelmeni. In addition, Chinese wontons are often referred to in the USA as Chinese or Peking ravs.
The fascinating phenomenon of ingredient swapping and cross-referencing between cooking traditions and recipes continues today. Contemporary twists to traditional recipes are more and more common thanks to increased global sourcing of ingredients and foods, affordable travel and immediate access to information. The result is a continuous revision, adaptation and mutation of traditional recipes with a marked impact on regional and local cuisines. For example, cream cheese wontons are now served in North American Chinese restaurants, and Mars bar and Nutella momo (a boiled dumpling traditionally filled with mutton or vegetables) is very popular with homesick, chocolate-craving backpackers in cafés across Nepal and Tibet.
Stuffing meat into Chinese-style baozi before steaming in large wooden baskets for large-scale production.
