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Comment by keiferski | Hacker News Reader

I used to make these often for potluck parties that I hosted myself - in Pittsburgh, where pierogi are so famous the baseball team has pierogi mascots race each other. [1] They’re a real crowd pleaser, the only hard part is that rolling and folding the dough thin enough requires the finger dexterity of an old babcia. (Polish grandma.)

So, unfortunately my pierogi often ended up being 2-3x thicker than the authentic ones from Poland.

1. https://youtu.be/6w5MDNjg9zU

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Polish from Poland here: no need to roll them out thin. Might be a variation found in your family, but typical pierogi - including those made by my Grandma - have some fluff.

A different thing is how do you make the dough. I've recently been to a potluck organized by a Canadian friend as a token Polish person there and I've seen her look up recipes in which the recipes for dough were very creative - I've seen yoghurt, eggs, cream, butter etc. being added to it. Combine that with a sharp cheddar stuffing and I quickly got heartburn :)

The way we make dough is way simpler: 2:1 white flour and boiling hot water, nothing else. Some people might add eggs, but I never do. Mix roughly while it's hot, then knead really well, roll out, shape and boil in generously salted water till they float + 1 minute.

My secret is/was to add potatoes into the dough itself.

But yeah it was more that mine often looked like empanadas, except boiled and fried. Still tasty, but not as thin as the ones I have here in Poland.

For that matter, American pierogi are larger and more potato-based than Polish pierogi.

There's a trick for that!

https://www.amazon.com/Utensils-Stainless-Ravioli-Dumpling-A...

Now those "every single one is exactly the same" creates machine-made feel about them but some people don't care. Some are also using spoon or a fork to fold them, it's simpler and a middle ground between hand-made and "machine" made.

Pierogi's rolling does not need to be thin, it's actually slightly ticker than Chinese ones.

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