Make some easy bierocks, Kansas style, a traditional dish that German immigrants brought with them when they settled the Great Plains.
Bierocks came to the Great Plains with German immigrants, and, like the people who brought them, they settled right in. Kansas and Nebraska are where they’re most popular, although Nebraska calls them “runzas.” Bierocks are a wonderfully portable, hand-held food that consists of meat, onion, and cabbage tucked inside a bun that’s either round or square. There’s no one way to make bierocks, and each person seems to put their own stamp on this traditional dish, which creates many variations.
Ingredients
- 6 pounds lean ground beef
- 2 yellow onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tablespoons dried parsley (I usually just pour a bunch into the palm of my hand; you can increase or decrease this to whatever you’re comfortable with)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 head green cabbage, chopped
- 1/4 cup prepared yellow mustard (optional, but adds good flavor)
- 1-1/2 pounds shredded cheddar cheese (you can add more or less to suit your family’s preferences)
Dough
- 4-1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 2 cups warm water
- 2 cups scalded milk (don’t skip the scalding)
- 1/2 (1 stick) cup cold butter
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons salt
- 12 cups unbleached bread flour
- Egg Wash:1 egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons milk
Directions
- Meat and Cabbage Filling: In a very large pan, add ground beef, onion, garlic, and seasonings. Cook the meat until it’s almost done. Then, add the chopped cabbage and continue cooking until the meat is done and the cabbage is tender.
- Drain the meat and cabbage mixture and return it to the pan.
- Mix in the mustard. I don’t normally measure the mustard; I eyeball it, but 1/4 cup is a good estimate. You can add more or less (or leave it out completely), if it suits you. Let the filling cool. I usually make the filling in the morning so it has plenty of time to cool before the next step.
- Once the filling is cool, add the shredded cheese and mix everything until it’s evenly distributed.
- Dough and Egg Wash: In a large bowl, whisk together yeast, 2 teaspoons sugar, and the water, and let it sit until frothy. In a pan, scald the milk, then add the butter to melt while the milk cools. Add the eggs to the bowl with the yeast. Add the milk (you may need to add an ice cube to cool it further if the butter has melted and the milk is still hot), 2/3 cup sugar, and salt to the yeast mixture, stirring to combine.
- Add half the flour to the yeast mixture and stir to combine. Then, add the remaining flour to the bowl and stir until everything is well-combined.
- Cover the bowl with a damp flour-sack towel or reusable bowl bonnet, and let the dough rest until it’s doubled in size. Rise time depends on how active your yeast is and how warm the room is. Keep an eye on it, because it can go from “It looks like it still has a ways to go” to trying to escape the bowl quicker than you might think.
- Once it’s doubled, punch it down, recover it, and let it rise until doubled again.
- When it’s finished rising the second time, punch it down and lightly knead it to remove some of the air bubbles.
- Assemble the Bierocks: Make sure your oven rack is in the center of the oven.
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- In a small bowl, whisk together the egg wash.
- Pinch off a small handful of dough (I’ve found that 3.5 ounces is the ideal amount) and flatten it in your hand into a 6-to-7-inch circle. Add 2.5 ounces of filling to the center of the dough, then pull the edges up to meet in the center and pinch them to seal. Place the filled dough, sealed side down, onto a baking sheet lined with unbleached parchment paper, leaving enough space for them to expand in the oven. Once the pan is full, brush each one with the egg wash, then place the pan in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until golden-brown.
- Try to wait until the bierocks have cooled enough not to burn your mouth (good luck). You can dip them in mustard if you wish, and they pair well with dill pickle spears.
I don’t make them often because of the time involved, but when I do, my family is always eagerly waiting for the first pan of this savory treat to come out of the oven. Back many years ago, when I first started making them, I wasn’t really happy with the bread that went around the filling. After trying a few different options, I ended up using my great-grandmother’s recipe for dinner rolls to make the bread for all of that delicious filling to tuck into. This recipe makes dozens, but they freeze so well, it’s well worth making a big batch and freezing any extras. Although, I have a household of seven, so while the bierocks end up in the refrigerator for a couple of days, they never last long enough to freeze.
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Originally published in the April/May 2026 issue of MOTHER EARTH NEWS and regularly vetted for accuracy.
