Perogies are leedle things, usually with cheese and potato mixed together inside (though the contents often vary), wrapped in a soft dough. They're quite good, too. Embrace the perogy.

In addition to pukesick's methods of cooking, boiling perogies is also acceptable, and another main method, though it does not leave you with the firm dough outside. How to boil perogies:
  • Get a pot that will be large enough to hold however many perogies you're going to make, and put it on to boil. When it gets to a rolling boil, add salt, and a teaspoon of margarine.
  • Put the perogies in, making sure to stir them lightly occasionally.
  • When the perogies are done, they will float to the top of the water and stay there. (Conversely, this means they will sink at first and you must make sure they don't burn to the bottom of the pot.)
  • Fish them out with a spoon or something, and let the water drip off a bit, then, they're ready to eat.
Some don't like the boiling method, but it can be used in conjunction with the frying method as well (by boiling first, and then frying.)
There are two main ways of cooking these tasty little fuckers. The first is to heat some oil in a frying pan on medium heat, perhaps chop in a little bit of garlic or onion, and then drop the perogies in. Flip them over when the bottom is lightly browned (well your gonna have to lift it up and look under okay), and take them out when both sides are done. Alternately, bake them in the oven (on a greased cookie tray) at about 350 until golden brown.

As a side note, it is rather easy to make them by hand. Make some mashed potatoes, chop in some brocolli, some cheese, maybe a little oregano, and then divide into small lumps. Encase these lumps in some dough (something of a hybrid dough between (bread/biscuits/pastry), use a fork to mash down the edges, and you are set.
A note on the spelling of 'perogy'

The Polish spelling and the spelling most common in the United States it seems is pierogi.  In Canada however the accepted spelling is perogy.  Why the difference?  This delicious little dumpling is a well travelled snack and the English name was derived from whichever culture happened to be most prevalent in the area.  In Canada, western Canada at least, we have far more Mennonite and Doukhobor immigrants than we do Polish immigrants so our name comes from Mennonite Plautdietsch and Russian.

The book Mennonite Food and Folkways from South Russia tells us that three words 'varenyky', 'perogy', and 'phyrohy' are often used to describe the same thing, but apart from the half-circle dough vehicle these 3 things are very different foods.

The origin of varenyky is the Russian word for boil, varitj. Typically referring to a small half circle dumpling, filled with cottage cheese and boiled. Varenyky can be stuffed with other things though, such as seasonal fruits and potatoes.

Perogi on the other hand means bake, so perogies are half circle dumplings baked in the oven.  A pyrohy is a large perogi and in some cases a large pie. Pyr is an obsolete Ukrainian word for banquet.

Despite all of this, in North America, unless your grandmother is making them, perogy almost always refers to a boiled dumpling stuffed with potato and cheese.

For the sake of completeness, the Plautdietsch versions of these words are Varenikje, Perieschkje, and Pyrohy.  The Russian pronunciation of perogy is Pirozhki.  There is also a Turkish variant from Crimea called manti.

Src: Mennonite Food and Folkways from South Russia, Volume I - Norma Jost Voth

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