Pirozhki (plural form of
pirozhok,
Russian ???????, ???????), sometimes transliterated as
piroshki (or
pyrizhky from
Ukrainian ???????), is a generic word for individual-sized baked or fried buns stuffed with a variety of fillings. The stress in
pirozhki is properly placed on the last syllable
[p?iro?'k?i].
[dubious – discuss] Pirozhok (
Russian ???????, singular) is the
diminutive form of the Russian
cognate pirog (
Russian ?????), which refers to a full-sized
pie. The Russian plural of this word,
pirogi (
Russian ??????, with the stress on the last syllable
[p?iro'g?i][dubious – discuss]), is not to be confused with
pierogi (stress on "o" in English) in other East European cuisines, which are similar to the
Russian pelmeni or
Ukrainian vareniki.
A common variety of pirozhki are baked stuffed buns made from yeast dough and often glazed with egg to produce the common golden colour. They may contain sweet-based fillings such as stewed or fresh fruit (apples, cherries, apricots, chopped lemon, etc), jam, or cottage cheese; a vegetable filling (mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions and egg, cabbage); meat or fish; an oatmeal filling mixed with meat or giblets. The buns may be plain and stuffed with the filling, or else be made in a free-form style with strips of dough decoratively encasing the filling.
This stuffed bun is also popular in Armenia, where it is called piroshki. It was adopted into the Armenian diet during pre-Soviet times, when Eastern Armenia was part of the Russian Empire, and continued along to the times of the Soviet Union and then independent Armenia. Piroshki can still be found as fast food made freshly on the streets of Armenian cities. In Armenia piroshki are commonly made with meat or potato fillings. The Greek variety piroski (Greek p???s??) is popular in parts of Greece influenced by eastern cuisine and in most big cities, where they are sold as a type of fast food. The Greek piroski come baked or deep-fried with many different stuffings.
In Latvia piragi (or speka rauši) are crescent shaped buns made with bread dough. They are baked (not boiled) and usually filled with bacon and onion. The Latvians have also developed other filling like kartupelu piragi (with potatoes), senu piragi (with mushrooms), and kapostu piragi (with cabbage), as well as dessert versions filled with apples, rhubarb, or cottage cheese. Karelian pasties (karjalanpiirakat/karjalanpiirakka in the South Karelian dialect of Finnish and karjalanpiiraat/karjalanpiiras in the North Karelian dialect) are a differently shaped pie popular in both Karelia and Finland.
