Pierogi class teaches skills while passing on family recipe
PETROLIA — Nearly two dozen people learned how to make pierogi from scratch while preserving a generations-old family recipe Sunday afternoon, March 15.
The Sweet Gremlin, a Petrolia-based bakery, hosted a pierogi-making class at the Petrolia Volunteer Fire Department on Sunday. Pupils got to learn how to turn potatoes, flour and just a few other ingredients into a full-fledged meal.
For Jenn McConnell, owner of the bakery, pierogi making has been passed down for at least three generations. She and her family began to offer the classes around four years ago and have hosted about 20 classes in that time.
“We usually have them here, but we’ve had them in Cabot and Chicora. We’ve done them for Girl Scouts troops wherever they meet,” she said.
She said the Polish and Slovak parts of her family passed the recipe down, and now she shares it with her students.
“I won’t share all of my recipes, but this is one I’ll share. But not my recipes for cheesecakes or cinnamon rolls,” she said.
McConnell said even getting the family recipe in the first place was a challenge, as the progenitors of family recipes, including the pierogi, cooked intuitively.
“My great-grandma, she didn’t write anything down, so when my family wanted her recipes, you had to watch her and scoop stuff back out. It’s probably not exact, but it’s close enough,” McConnell said.
Over the course of about two hours, the 20 or so attendees were tasked to peel, cut and mash potatoes, make and shape their own dough and assemble the pierogi. The class taught how to cook them, but the step was optional, so they could choose to take them home uncooked for later.
Dodie Rivers-Shirley, one attendee, said she hasn’t made pierogi in decades and was inspired to come by her friend, Teresa Hovis.
“One of my best girlfriends talked me into taking this class. She said ‘I think it would be fun, we should go,’ and I told her, ‘OK,” she said.
She said making pirogi reminded her of her grandmother, who would make them all the time.
“My grandma came over from Germany and she’d make them for us when I was little,” she said. “Except when she made pierogi, it was so many it’d fill a room.”
McConnell said offering pierogi classes over something more generic for a bakery, such as cupcakes or cookies, is part of the philosophy behind The Sweet Gremlin.
“It’s something unique and I think the whole point of our bakery is to be a unique space,” she said.
She said she believes cooking to be a dying art form, which was part of the inspiration behind offering classes. She said she hopes someday to offer canning classes, as she feels similarly about the practice.
McConnell said she’s willing to host more classes, especially outside Petrolia, so she’s always looking for places that are interested. She said anyone interested in future classes can sign up on the website.
She said she is also working to try to offer pierogi at the Butler farmers market when it starts for the year in May.
