Knish

A classic potato knish

A knish ( /ˈknɪʃ/) or knysh is an Eastern European, and Jewish snack food made popular in America by Jewish immigrants, eaten widely by Jewish and non-Jewish peoples alike.^{[citation needed]}

History

Immigrants who arrived from Ukraine sometime around 1900 brought knishes to America. Knish is a Yiddish word that was derived from the Ukrainian "knysh", meaning "a kind of bun." It is a baked or fried dumpling made of flaky dough with filling. The first knish bakery was founded in New York in 1910."

A knish consists of a filling covered with dough that is either baked, grilled, or deep fried. Knishes can be purchased from street vendors in urban areas with a large Jewish population, sometimes at a hot dog stand, or from a nearby butcher shop.

In the most traditional versions, the filling is made entirely of mashed potato, ground meat, sauerkraut, onions, kasha (buckwheat groats) or cheese. Other varieties of fillings feature sweet potatoes, black beans, fruit, broccoli, tofu or spinach.

Many cultures have variations on baked, grilled, or fried dough-covered snacks similar to the knish: the Cornish pasty, the Scottish Bridie, the Jamaican patty, the Spanish and Latin American empanada, the Portuguese rissole, the Italian calzone, the South Asian samosa, the Polish pierogi, and the Middle Eastern fatayer.

Knishes may be round, rectangular or square. They may be entirely covered in dough or some of the filling may peek out of the top. Sizes range from those that can be eaten in a single bite hors d'oeuvre to sandwich-sized.

See also

• Yonah Shimmel's Knish Bakery
• Jiaozi, Gyoza, or Potsticker
• Turnover
• Israeli cuisine
• Jewish food