Blini

Blini

Lithuanian blinis (blynai)
Alternative names	Blin, bliny, blintchik
Type	Pancake
Main ingredients	Buckwheat

A blini (sometimes spelled bliny) or, rarely, blin (more accurate as a single form of the noun) is a thin pancake, traditionally made from buckwheat flour and served with sour cream, butter, caviar, and other garnishes. Should not be confused with blintzes ("blinchik" in Russian) also known as crepes or palatschinke.

Some English dictionaries record usage of the forms blin as singular and blini or bliny as plural, which correspond to the originally Russian forms, but some dictionaries consider this usage so rare in English that they do not mention blin at all and only record the widespread modern regular usage of blini for the singular and blinis for the plural, for example the American Heritage, MacMillan, and Vocabulary.com dictionaries. Some cookbooks and restaurants use blin and blintchick as in Russian to refer to crêpes.

Blintzes are apparently an offshoot (an evolved or variant form) of blini. They are thin pancakes usually made of wheat flour (not buckwheat), folded to form a casing (as for cheese or fruit) and then sautéed or baked.

Blini comes from the Russian word блины́ bliný (plural of блин blin), which refers to pancakes in general and comes from the Old Russian mlinŭ, blinŭ, which comes from Old Slavic mlinъ, (cf. млинець (mlynets’), Ukrainian for blin).

Blinis were considered by early Slavic people in pre-Christian times to be a symbol of the sun, due to their round form. They were traditionally prepared at the end of winter to honor the rebirth of the new sun (Butter Week, or Maslenitsa, also called "pancake week"). This tradition was adopted by the Orthodox church and is carried on to the present day. Blini were also served at wakes to commemorate the recently deceased.