A Typology of Dumplings (2019)

Since this is getting a few votes, I might as well ask the question that led me to this page: How do Belorussian Kalduny differ from Polish Pierogi, Ukranian Vareniki, and Russian Pelmeni?

I had no idea khinkali were so similar to xiaolongbao!

Only if all donuts are dumplings, since the jelly is added after cooking.

To steal mercilessly from Wikipedia:

The most important difference between pelmeni, varenyky, and pierogi is the thickness of the dough shell—in pelmeni and vareniki this is as thin as possible, and the proportion of filling to dough is usually higher. Pelmeni are never served with a sweet filling, which distinguishes them from vareniki and Polish pierogi, which sometimes are. Also, the fillings in pelmeni are usually raw, while the fillings of vareniki and pierogi are typically precooked.

Those distinctions seem about right in my experience, and I eat all three fairly often, since I go to a lot of cultural festivals.

The article on knödel on wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knödel is a hot mess. I was curious to see a distinction between knedlik and knodel so I looked at this and, aside from its over-reliance on German terminology, it seems to contradict itself internally. I grew up with English terms for the dumplings that I ate, which were primarily plum dumplings (very rarely with other fruit) and bread dumplings. In my limited experience, knödel is just the German word for what Czechs call knedlik, but I just eat them, I'm not an authority.