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National Dumpling Day

Food · September 26

A food day for dumplings, the filled or simple pockets of dough that turn up steamed, boiled or fried in kitchens around the world.

National Dumpling Day falls on Sunday, September 26, 2027. That is 334 days away.

Dumplings are pieces of dough, sometimes wrapped around a filling and sometimes not, cooked by steaming, boiling, frying or some mix of the three. Nearly every cooking tradition has a version, which makes the word less a single recipe than a large, loosely related family.

The range is wide. Chinese jiaozi are pleated half moons filled with pork, cabbage or chives. Polish pierogi are often stuffed with potato and cheese. Italian ravioli are a pasta cousin, and in parts of the American South, chicken and dumplings means soft drops of biscuit-like dough simmered in broth. Some are delicate enough to hold soup inside. Others are sturdy enough to survive a cast iron pan.

Most people mark the day by eating them, of course, but folding them is where much of the pleasure lives. Dumpling making suits a crowded table. One person rolls wrappers, another spoons filling, and everyone develops strong opinions about pleats. The first few look lopsided. By the twentieth, hands have usually figured it out.

For anyone cooking at home, store-bought wrappers save a lot of time, and a little water brushed on the edges helps them seal. Potstickers get their name from the browned bottom that forms when they fry, then steam, in the same covered pan.

Leftover filling rarely goes to waste. It tends to end up in a frying pan the next morning, scrambled with an egg.

Ways to celebrate

• Try folding dumplings at home with store-bought wrappers.
• Invite friends over to fill and pleat a batch together.
• Look for a dumpling style you have never tasted before.
• Share a family dumpling recipe with someone who asks.
• Try making a simple dipping sauce with soy sauce and vinegar.

Dates

Categories: Food days