Today, pierogi are the most recognizable Polish food in the United States and a symbol of Polish American identity. How did this humble dish attain such lofty status?

Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann explores the surprising history of pierogi, tracing how Polish cuisine evolved amid the multiethnic landscape of the United States. When Polish immigrants crossed the ocean, they brought with them their traditional cuisine, which came to signify enduring attachment to homeland, family, religion, and culture. In time, they as well as new generations and new immigrant waves gradually transformed Polish American culinary culture, reflecting food trends and changes in the United States, Poland, and the world.

Pierogi takes readers into the kitchens where Polish American families, friend groups, and community organizations carry on the custom of cooking and eating together. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann highlights small- and large-scale pierogi producers who adapted traditional dishes for the US market and food celebrities who mainstreamed them, and she traces the symbolic representation of pierogi in popular culture. She also shares personal stories, from her family’s resourcefulness in communist-era Poland facing near-constant food shortages to her experiences as an immigrant to the United States in the 1980s. Drawing on sources from historical and recent cookbooks to interviews with Polish American entrepreneurs and community members, this book offers new insights for anyone interested in East Central European and American foodways.

Anna D. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann is Distinguished Professor of History and CSU Professor Emerita at Eastern Connecticut State University. She is the author of The Exile Mission: The Polish Political Diaspora and Polish Americans, 1939–1956 (2004) and The Polish Hearst: Ameryka-Echo and the Public Role of the Immigrant Press (2015) and coeditor of Polish American Voices: A Documentary History, 1608–2020 (2024), among other books. Jaroszyńska-Kirchmann is editor in chief of the journal Polish American Studies and past president of the Polish American Historical Association.