Dumplings from all over the world look like they have a common grandmother: jiaozi, pelmeni, varenyky, pierogi, maultaschen, and Innviertel dumplings. This cannot be proven. But one thing is certain: a great many peoples came up with the same excellent idea – the Best of food hidden in thin dough.
Globally distributed
At some point, someone must have mixed flour with water and thought to themselves: This isn't savory enough yet. So they added meat. Or cheese. Or cabbage. Or cherries. Then the whole thing was folded shut and cooked. With that, one of the most successful ideas in culinary history was born: the filled dumpling.
Almost everywhere in the world, there are variations of them. Some look like crescents, some like small ears, some like purses, and some like office binders. In the Innviertel, they are rolled into perfect spheres and called dumplings. These very Innviertel dumplings—at least in their flour-dough version—belong much more to the large family of filled pockets than to the thick potato dumplings of other Austrian regions.
But first things first. We begin in Beijing and travel westward. Not along a historically proven dumpling route, but along the lines of culinary kinship.
Beijing: Jiaozi, the Chinese crescents
If you order „dumplings“ in a Chinese restaurant, you can get very different things. The closest relatives of our European candidates are Dumplings: crescent-shaped dumplings made with a wheat flour wrapper and a filling of meat, vegetables, or both. They are boiled, steamed, or pan-fried.
Jiaozi are especially popular in Northern China at Home, where people traditionally eat more wheat than in the rice-dominated south. Around Chinese New Year, they play there a special role. Anyone who therefore writes that „the Chinese“ eat jiaozi for the New Year prematurely turns a northern Chinese tradition into a pan-Chinese one. Even within China, dumpling research therefore begins with a warning: Please do not lump everything together—even if everything ends up in the same pot in the end.
Visually and technically, jiaozi are astonishingly similar to Polish pierogi or Ukrainian varenyky. It is often claimed that all European dumplings are directly descended from them, but this is not clearly substantiated. Influences via trade, migrations, and the many empires of Eurasia are conceivable. It is equally conceivable that several cuisines independently came up with the not-too-far-fetched idea of enclosing a filling with dough.
Moscow: Pelmeni, the little ears
In Russia, these particularly small dumplings—usually filled with raw ground meat—are called Pelmeni. At their core, their thin, unleavened dough also consists of flour and water, often with the addition of egg. They are boiled and gladly served with butter, sour cream, or vinegar.
Your story leads rather into The Urals and on to Siberia than to the palaces of Moscow. The name is usually traced back to the Finno-Ugric languages of the region: fur means "ear,", nyan Bread—or, roughly speaking, „ear bread.“ That’s not exactly appetizing from a culinary standpoint, but the name makes sense given its shape.
Whether pelmeni were originally influenced by Chinese dumplings cannot be definitively determined. Russian food historians pointing to contacts with China, Central Asia, Tatars, and Uralic peoples – and at the same time to the fact that pelmeni only appeared more broadly in Russian cookbooks in the 19th century. The honest answer is therefore: there were probably multiple influences; there is no officially certified first pelmen.
Kyiv: Varenyky can also be made with cherries
The Ukrainian Pierogi – Ukrainian varenyky – At first glance, they resemble Polish pierogi: thinly rolled dough, cut into circles, filled, folded into a half-moon shape, and boiled in salted water.
There is remarkable openness regarding the filling. Potatoes, cheese, cabbage, mushrooms, and meat are just as possible as poppy seeds or fruit. Vareniki with cherries prove that a dumpling doesn't have to choose between being a main course or a dessert. It can be both—just not at the same time.
Warenyky belong to most famous dishes of Ukraine and have numerous regional variants. Served with butter, fried onions, bacon greaves, or sour cream, their flavor profile already moves clearly in the direction of that world in which the Innviertel will later also appear.
Warsaw: Pierogi – and please no extra „s“
In Poland, the dumplings are called Pierogi. The word is already the plural; a single specimen is called dumpling. Ordering „pierogis“ is therefore about as elegant as „spaghettis“ – you'll be understood, but somewhere a grandmother flinches.
Classic pierogi dough can be very simple: flour, hot water and salt, sometimes also egg. They are filled with, among other things, potatoes and quark, cabbage and mushrooms, meat or fruit. The word „pierogi“ has been documented in writing in Poland since the 17th century. In the oldest surviving Polish cookbook from 1682, there are, among other things, sweet ones filled with rose or elderberry jam dumplings made of yeast dough. So they were not completely identical to the boiled pierogi typical today.
A particularly nice linguistic trap is Ruthenian pierogi. That doesn't mean „Russian pierogi.“. The name refers to the historical region of Ruthenia, today largely in Ukraine. Thus, the well-known filling of potatoes and quark is more of a culinary testimony to the closely intertwined Polish-Ukrainian history than a greeting from Moscow.
Short detour to Tbilisi: Khinkali with handles
Anyone who looks only at the shape will find a particularly striking cousin of the Innviertel dumpling in Georgia: Khinkali. A round dough disc is filled with seasoned meat, pulled up into pleats all around, and closed at the top into a thick knot. Afterwards, the remarkably large package goes into boiling salted water.
Meat juice forms inside. Therefore, you take Khinkali traditionally by hand, carefully bites a hole into it and first drinks out the liquid before it lands on shirt or trousers. The firm dough knot serves as a handle and often remains lying on the plate. That is practical because after the meal you can count how immoderate you were.
Khinkali look different from Innviertel dumplings, but they show the same construction principle particularly clearly: you pull thin dough completely around a meat filling and then boil it.
Stuttgart: The Maultasche becomes a rectangle
In Germany, the Swabian ravioli the next known relative. Her dough is a Pasta dough made from flour or durum wheat semolina, Egg, water and salt. Traditionally, this contains a mixture that may include meat, forcemeat, bacon, spinach, parsley, onions, leeks and soaked bread. Maultaschen are larger than pelmeni or pierogi and are usually rectangular. If pelmeni are small ears, the Maultasche is the filing cabinet of the dumpling family.
„Schwabian Maultaschen and Schwabian Soup Maultaschen“ have been registered in the EU as protected geographical indications since 2009. Far less protected is their most famous origin story: monks from Maulbronn Monastery are said to have hidden meat in dough during Lent so that the Lord would not see it. Hence the nickname „Herrgottsbscheißerle“ (little God-cheaters).
An excellent story – just probably not a true one. An SWR investigation came in 2026 to the conclusion that the chronological evidence does not fit: written sources mention the Maultasche only centuries after the end of monastic life in Maulbronn. God was therefore presumably not cheated. The audience, rather.
Terminal Innviertel: The dumpling that is actually a round dough pocket
And with that, we are in the Innviertel. Anyone who immediately thinks of a thick casing of potato dough when hearing the word „dumpling“ faces a culinary border control here.
The Innviertel variant that is crucial for this comparison possesses a delicate casing of flour or pasta doughin the simplest case flour, water, salt and a little oil; some recipes also use egg or milk. A small ball of cured bacon, smoked bacon, greaves or sausage meat is completely enclosed in it, rolled into a sphere and cooked in water.
However, within the Innviertel, there is a serious dough question. Alongside flour dough, regional traditions exist with very finely prepared bread roll dough. One according to local tradition while yeast dough was previously more widespread around Braunau, whereas flour dough was used more frequently in Ried and Schärding. However, this small-scale distribution is not definitively documented historically. Which does not belongs to the characteristic Innviertel tradition, is the thick potato dough. Anyone who uses that has, so to speak, smuggled in a Waldviertler with a fake passport.
Structurally, the Innviertel flour dough dumpling is actually closer to jiaozi, pelmeni, warenyky, pierogi, khinkali, and maultaschen than to the classic Austrian potato dumpling. The biggest difference is the geometry: with most of its relatives, the dough is folded or sealed into pockets. In the Innviertel, you pull the dough around the filling and then twist it until neither a beginning nor an end is visible.
A family—but without a verified family tree
So are Innviertel dumplings Chinese? Of course not. Are Maultaschen Swabian pierogi and Pelmeni Russian jiaozi? That would also be too simple. Culminarily, they all belong to the same large family of construction: thin dough, filling inside, seal, cook.
Historically, however, no seamless travel route can be proven from Beijing via Moscow, Kyiv, Warsaw, and Stuttgart all the way to the Innviertel. In addition, there has been trade, migration, wars, and cultural exchange across Eurasia for centuries. Nevertheless, „We wrap the good stuff in dough so nothing is lost“ is an idea that people could well have come up with multiple times.
The common denominator is therefore not necessarily a single primal dough pocket. It is a universal human realization: almost everything becomes better when you wrap it in dough.
The Dumpling Passport Control
| Court | Typical case | Typical form | Common fillings | Mostly cooked by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jiaozi, China | Thin wheat dough | Crescent moon | Meat, vegetables | Cooking, steaming or frying |
| Pelmeni, Russia | Thin, unleavened dough, often with egg | Small „ear“ or ring | Mostly raw minced meat | Cooking |
| Varenyky, Ukraine | Thin, unleavened flour dough | Crescent moon | Potatoes, cheese, cabbage, mushrooms, meat, or fruit | Cooking |
| Pierogi, Poland | Flour, water and salt; egg depending on the recipe | Crescent moon | Potatoes and quark, cabbage, mushrooms, meat, or fruit | Cooking, sometimes followed by frying |
| Khinkali, Georgia | Thin flour dough | Round little bag with knot | Seasoned meat and meat juices | Cooking |
| Swabian Maultaschen | Egg noodle dough | Rectangle or roll | Meat or sausage meat, spinach, bread and herbs | Cooking or simmering |
| Innviertel Dumplings, flour dough variant | Thin flour or pasta dough | Small sphere | Cured bacon, lard, crackling, or sausage meat | Cooking |
From Naples to the wide world: The triumphal march of the pizza
Support journalism
Independent journalism needs strong supporters. If you liked this article, we welcome a direct contribution to our editorial team.
