What is "knish"

knish \knish\ (k'n[i^]sh"), n. (Russian and Jewish Cookery) A fried, or sometimes baked, turnover made from a round or square sheet of dough containing a filling, usually of meat or potatoes.

1930, from Yiddish, from Russian knysh, a kind of cake.

n. An Eastern European Jewish, or Yiddish, snack food consisting of a dumpling covered with a shell of baked or fried dough

n. (Yiddish) baked or fried turnover filled with potato or meat or cheese; often eaten as a snack

A knish or knysh is an Eastern European snack food consisting of a filling covered with dough that is either baked, grilled, or deep fried.

Knishes can be purchased from street vendors in urban areas with a large Jewish population, sometimes at a hot dog stand or from a butcher shop. It was made popular in North America by Eastern European immigrants from the Pale of Settlement (mainly from present-day Belarus, Poland, Lithuania and Ukraine).

In most Eastern European traditional versions, the filling is made entirely of mashed potato, ground meat, sauerkraut, onions, kasha ( buckwheat groats), or cheese. Other varieties of fillings include sweet potatoes, black beans, fruit, broccoli, tofu, or spinach.

Knishes may be round, rectangular, or square. They may be entirely covered in dough or some of the filling may peek out of the top. Sizes range from those that can be eaten in a single bite hors d'oeuvre to sandwich-sized.