How Long to Boil Vareniki After They Float: Frozen and Homemade

Time is counted from the moment the vareniki float. For frozen ones it comes from producer instructions, for homemade ones from recipes: the thinner the dough and the softer the filling, the fewer minutes.

Shop-bought vareniki are boiled without thawing, in boiling salted water. For potato, sweet cottage cheese and cherry vareniki producers give the same time: until they float and then 5-7 minutes more.

1. Bring water to the boil in a wide pot: there should be enough for the vareniki to move freely.
2. Salt the water: 1/2-1 tsp of salt per litre for potato, cabbage or mushroom vareniki and just a pinch for sweet ones.
3. Drop the vareniki into the boiling water straight from the freezer, without thawing, and stir at once so they do not stick to the bottom.
4. When the water boils again, turn the heat down to medium and stir from time to time.
5. After they float, cook the vareniki for another 5-7 minutes. If the pack gives a different time, follow it.
6. Taste one: the dough should be soft and the filling hot.
7. Lift them out with a slotted spoon, add butter straight away and shake the bowl gently so they do not stick together.

• Water. The vareniki should be fully covered and float freely. The guide is the same as for pelmeni: about 3 litres per 1 kg. A large amount is cooked in several batches: in a recipe on this site a 3-litre pot takes 3-4 servings at a time.
• Salt. 1/2-1 tsp per litre for savoury vareniki. For sweet ones a pinch is enough, so as not to mask the filling.
• Spices. For savoury fillings add 1-2 bay leaves and a few black peppercorns to the water; a small onion is optional.
• Oil. 1-2 tbsp of vegetable oil in the water help to stop the vareniki sticking. Alternatively, butter the cooked vareniki.

Floating shows that the dough has heated through, but not yet that the filling has. That is why the time is counted after they float, and doneness is checked by three signs.

• The vareniki have floated and cooked for the right time: 5-7 minutes for frozen ones, 2-5 minutes for fresh ones.
• The dough is soft and slightly translucent. If in doubt, pinch off a bit of dough from the edge and taste it.
• The filling is hot when one is cut open. This matters most for cottage cheese and raw meat fillings.

The times in the table are a guide: they depend on how thick the dough is and how large the vareniki are. The first time, check one a minute before the time is up.

Fresh, just-shaped vareniki cook faster than frozen ones: the dough does not need to thaw and the filling is usually already cooked. The thicker the dough, the closer the time is to the upper end. Size matters too: large vareniki with a thick seam need more minutes, small ones fewer.

• Potato. 3-5 minutes after floating: vareniki with potatoes and fried onions, Lenten potato dumplings, dumplings with potatoes and sauerkraut.
• Cabbage and mushrooms. The filling is also cooked, so the time is the same: 3-5 minutes.
• Cottage cheese. 2-3 minutes: the cheese heats quickly, and with long boiling the filling leaks through the seams.
• Cherries and berries. 2-4 minutes, otherwise the juice bursts the dough: dumplings with cherries, with frozen cherries, with frozen strawberries.
• Meat. With a cooked meat filling, boil them like potato vareniki, 3-5 minutes. With raw minced meat, boil them like pelmeni: 5-7 minutes after floating; the meat should reach 71 °C (160 °F).
• Homemade from the freezer. Like shop-bought ones: 5-7 minutes after floating, without thawing.

In step-by-step recipes the time is given for a particular dough and filling, so it varies a little.

The dough for lazy vareniki is made from cottage cheese, egg, flour and sugar, so they need no separate filling. They go into gently simmering salted water, are stirred carefully with a slotted spoon and boiled for 2-3 minutes after they float. Lift them out in small batches and add butter straight away. Frozen ones are boiled without thawing, 2-3 minutes longer. Recipes: lazy dumplings with cottage cheese and lazy dumplings with cherries. In the recipe with a cherry inside they are boiled for just a minute after floating, so that the cherry does not burst.

• Steamed on the hob. Oil the rack or cloth, arrange the vareniki in a single layer so that they do not touch, and cook covered over boiling water for 5-7 minutes. Frozen ones need 3-5 minutes longer. Steamed vareniki do not sit in water, so the juice of the filling is not lost to it: the method suits berry vareniki well. Recipe: steamed dumplings with cherries.
• Steamed in a multicooker. Pour about two cups of water into the bowl, put the vareniki in the oiled basket and cook for 15 minutes on the steam setting.
• In a multicooker, in water. Half-fill the bowl with boiling water, add the vareniki and cook for about 5 minutes on the steam setting or 8-10 minutes on the pasta setting.
• Microwave. Arrange the vareniki in a deep dish in a single layer, pour in hot water to come about halfway up and cover. Cook for a minute at full power and about 8 more minutes at medium, then leave them in the switched-off oven for a few minutes.

• Use a wide pot. Crowded vareniki stick together, so a large amount is cooked in batches.
• Add them only to boiling water. And stir straight away so that they do not stick to the bottom or to each other.
• Do not thaw them. Thawed dough turns soft and sticks even before cooking.
• Salt the water. Even for sweet vareniki, at least with a pinch.
• Add fat. 1-2 tbsp of vegetable oil in the water or a knob of butter in the bowl with the cooked vareniki.
• Do not leave them in the colander. Hot vareniki without butter stick within a couple of minutes, so move them to a bowl and dress them at once.

• Badly sealed seams. If filling or flour gets on the edge of the dough, the seam opens during boiling.
• Wet filling. Berries with sugar release juice that soaks the dough. In the recipes on this site cherries are covered with sugar for 30 minutes and drained, and a spoonful of starch goes into the filling. Wet cottage cheese is squeezed through cheesecloth before shaping.
• A hard boil. The vareniki knock against each other and the sides of the pot. Once the water boils again, turn the heat down to medium.
• Too long in the water. Take cooked vareniki out at once: in hot water the dough keeps soaking. Cottage cheese and berry vareniki suffer first.
• Shaped vareniki left out too long. Raw vareniki are not kept on the table for more than 30 minutes: boil or freeze them straight away.

Cottage cheese fillings and lazy vareniki dough usually contain raw egg. Egg dishes should reach 71 °C (160 °F) in the centre: that is the US Department of Agriculture figure. So cottage cheese vareniki are not taken out the moment they float: cook them for another 2-3 minutes and cut one open to check that the filling is hot.

Khinkali are larger than vareniki and their meat filling is raw, so they take longer: 10-15 minutes after the water boils again. In the recipe on this site homemade khinkali are boiled for 10 minutes after they float; frozen ones get 3-5 minutes more and are not thawed either: khinkali at home.

Manti are steamed: the Redmond multicooker table gives 30-35 minutes for them, and the recipe on this site about half an hour: manti with meat and potatoes. Frozen pelmeni are boiled for 5-7 minutes after they float; more in how long to boil pelmeni.

Arrange the shaped vareniki on a floured board in a single layer, freeze them and only then tip them into a bag: this way they do not stick together. The recipes on this site give homemade vareniki up to 3 months in the freezer. Boil them without thawing, 2-3 minutes longer than fresh ones.

Shop-bought frozen vareniki are stored at -18 °C or below; their shelf life is usually 180 days. Producers state that refreezing is not allowed: thawed vareniki should be cooked at once.

Refrigerate cooked vareniki within 2 hours. In a closed container they keep for 3-4 days according to the US Department of Agriculture; Food Standards Scotland advises eating leftovers within 2 days. Berry vareniki are best eaten on the first day: the dough soaks up the juice.

Coat the vareniki with butter so that they do not stick together in the container. Reheat them in a frying pan with butter for 3-4 minutes, until lightly golden, or in a microwave under a lid for 1-2 minutes.

• Potato, cabbage, mushroom. Sour cream, butter, fried onions or pork cracklings.
• Cottage cheese. Sour cream and butter, plus sugar or honey for sweet ones.
• Cherries and berries. Sour cream, sugar, or a syrup made from the juice the berries released for the filling.
• Lazy vareniki. Melted butter and sour cream, with jam if you like.

According to producers, 100 g of potato vareniki has 160-180 kcal, cottage cheese ones about 200 kcal and cherry ones about 210 kcal. Homemade vareniki from the recipes on this site: potato ones about 140 kcal per 100 g, cherry ones 155-185 kcal, lazy cottage cheese vareniki 225 kcal. A tablespoon of 20% sour cream (about 20 g) adds roughly 40 kcal, and 10 g of butter about 75 kcal.