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My husband smokes delicious chicken wings and bakes amazing banana bread. But bierocks—rolls filled with seasoned ground beef and sauerkraut—are one of his all-time favorite dinners to make.
The recipe comes from Crestview Café, a collection of recipes from friends and families of Crestview Elementary School in Boulder, Colorado. My husband, Gavin, inherited the vintage spiral-bound cookbook, which was assembled by the school’s PTA, from his late sister Kellee.
While the cookbook is a treasure trove of family recipes shared by teachers, staff, students, parents, and grandparents—from “Earl’s Steak Diane” to “Chili Weekend Cocoction”—Gavin was drawn to how simple the four-ingredient bierocks recipe seemed (and the fact that it’s spelled “beer rocks” in the book). “It almost seemed too easy,” he says.
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What Are Bierocks?
Patricia Kaowthumrong
Bierocks (or beer rocks) are savory pastries often stuffed with meat, cabbage, and onion. The hearty buns, which were brought to America’s Great Plains region by German Russian Mennonite immigrants in the mid-1800s, are staples in households and small-town diners in Kansas. Across the state line in Nebraska, bierocks are called runzas and there’s even an eponymous Lincoln-born fast-food chain that specializes in the meat pastry.
How to Make Bierocks?
Patricia Kaowthumrong
The recipe in Crestview Café, submitted by Angela McLaughlin, calls for just frozen dinner rolls, hamburger, Lipton dry onion soup mix, and sauerkraut. All you have to do is let the rolls rise; sauté the ground beef with the onion soup mix and sauerkraut; and fill the buns with the mixture. Then bake the buns until they’re golden brown and fluffy. The delicious handheld treats are a delicious quick dinner or ideal for sharing at potlucks and other gatherings. ”Great for football games,” Angela notes in her recipe.
Beer Rocks
Ingredients
- 1 package Rhode’s frozen dinner rolls
- 1 pound hamburger
- 1 package Lipton dry onion soup mix
- 1 can sauerkraut, drained, rinsed, and diced
Directions
Let rolls rise following the directions on the package. Just before they finish rising, fry the hamburger and drain, then add the soup mix and sauerkraut. Take each roll in your greased hand and spread it open. Add enough meat mixture (1 to 2 soup spoons) to the middle of each roll and seal the roll around the meat. Bake at 375 degrees F until the rolls are golden brown.
Bierock Tips and Variations
Patricia Kaowthumrong
Here’s some advice for making and serving the meat buns!
- Buy bigger buns. While Angela just calls for Rhode’s frozen dinner rolls, Gavin likes to buy the brand’s “Texas-size” rolls, which are slightly larger and produce the perfect bread-to-filling ratio (particularly if you’re trying to pack them with two spoonfuls of meat). If you use smaller dough balls, adjust the amount of filling to the size of the bun. Don’t overstuff!
- Cool the ground beef mixture. This will make it easier to pack into the buns.
- Add cheese. We top the meat mixture with a quarter slice of Swiss or Cheddar before sealing the bun.
- Don’t worry too much about shaping the bierocks perfectly. Frozen dinner roll dough is usually very forgiving. I’ve over proofed the dough by accident and have even smushed the risen rolls before filling them with meat and they still turn out great. Gavin even says the more ruffles the buns have on the outside, the better. “I like when they look like rocks,” he says.
- Seal the meat inside. While the buns don’t have to be perfectly round or smooth, be sure the filling is sealed inside the dough as tightly as possible by squeezing the seam and any holes gently with your fingers.
- Brush the buns with egg wash. This is totally optional but gives the pastries a glossy, beautifully browned exterior.
- Serve them with ranch or A1. I think both complement the onion-y meat mixture really well.
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