What is "pirozhki"

n. 1 Small pastry filled with finely chopped meat, vegetables or fruit baked or fried, from eastern European cuisine, or a serving of these. (plural of pirozhok English)Category:English plurals 2 A single such pastry.

n. small fruit or meat turnover baked or fried [syn: pirogi, piroshki]

Pirozhki (, plural form of pirozhok, literally a "small pie"), also transliterated as piroshki (singular piroshok) or pyrizhky , 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: . Pirozhok (, singular) is the diminutive form of the Russian pirog (пирог), which refers to a full-sized pie. (Unless the full-sized pie is called by the diminutive name for purely stylistic reasons.) Pirozhki are not to be confused with Polish pierogi, which are practically identical to the Ukrainian and Russian varenyky.

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 commonly contain meat (typically beef) or a vegetable filling (mashed potatoes, mushrooms, onions and egg, or cabbage). Pirozhki could also be stuffed with fish (e.g., salmon) or with an oatmeal filling mixed with meat or giblets. Sweet-based fillings could include stewed or fresh fruit (apples, cherries, apricots, chopped lemon, etc.), jam, quark or cottage cheese. 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.

Potatoes among American crops became very popular when the vegetable was brought and adopted to the Eurasian climate. Before then, the ingredient was not available as it took more time to acclimatize to continental regions like Russia and Ukraine. Before then, the ingredients would contain more vegetables and fruits, as well as duck, goose and rabbit meat, uncommon today.