
Buuz are the Mongolian take on the dumpling, and are typically filled with mutton or beef.
In the Beginning, There Were … Dumplings?
August 26, 2013
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/08/26/214833891/in-the-beginning-there-were-dumplings
Buuz are the Mongolian take on the dumpling, and are typically filled with mutton or beef.
From Warsaw to Wuhan, people around the world love dumplings. They’re tasty little packages that can be made of any grain and stuffed with whatever the locals crave. But where did they come from?
No one knows for sure, but Ken Albala, a food historian at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif., thinks dumplings have been around for a very long time. “Almost without doubt, there are prehistoric dumplings,” he says.
Albala envisions the origins of the dumplings like this: To get nutrition from wild grains, hunter-gatherer humans had to cook them. Maybe they’d hollow out a log and fill it with water. Then they’d use hot stones from a fire to get the water boiling. They’d throw in the grain, he says. “And I think it’s a very fine line between putting in loose flour or meal, and getting a porridge out of it, or putting in lumps,” and getting out dumplings.
Given a choice between gruel and dumplings, Albala says, many people would have chosen the dumpling. “A dumpling, I don’t know, it seems like more fun to me,” he says.
… Dumplings were also around in Renaissance Europe, adds Albala.
“The recipes start showing up in the 15th century,” he says, often under the heading “gnocchi.”
“Basically, you just take breadcrumbs, you add flour to it, sometimes cheese, sometimes herbs and egg to bind it.”
Today, dumplings exist across Europe and Asia. Many are called manti.
… the Chinese call wontons and the Italians call tortellini.
The Secret To Making …? Kreplach
September 13, 2013
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/13/221775504/the-secret-to-making-it-through-a-yom-kippur-fast-kreplach
It’s about … knowing someone special made them for you.