#9 Kuche Kochen, Germans from Russia

#9 Kuche Kochen, American Historical Society of Germans from Russia

When you marry the oldest son of a devoted mother you know you have to try and impress her as well as him. I married a man whose grandparents were Germans from Russia. The group lived in Russia but kept their German culture and language back to the time of Catherine the Great. When they came over to the United States they brought recipes that combined the foods of both of these countries. One great new food my mother-in-law introduced me to was Bierock (beer-rock). Up until a few years ago, no one had heard of Bierocks, now when Googled, you get over 4000 hits and 312 photos so their fame is spreading. In some areas of the US they are known as runza or cabbage sandwiches. These usually are turned upside down so they have a smooth bun like top. We don't turn ours upside down we like the pinched look and the X on top.

So what are they? Very simply, they are fresh bread dough that is wrapped around a filling of browned ground beef, onion and shredded cabbage. They are seasoned with salt and lots of pepper and that's ALL! In my opinion, they do not need to be tarted up with garlic, hot sauce or cheese, the yeasty bread and steaming filling is enough.

Anyway back to my mother-in-law, she gave me very detailed instructions in their preparation. It was an all day project, she started by making the bread dough and then the filling. When the dough had risen it was carefully rolled out on a floured board. Next she would get out the rulers and measure out perfect squares, cutting them and then filling them with the cooled mixture. Each bierock would be carefully pinched shut and placed in a pan to rise a second time. After being brushed with butter they were baked and served warm from the oven. Hers are very special but it took so long! I'm not a great cook but back in the days when they gave aptitude tests in school, my counselor informed me I should be an "efficiency expect". Maybe I'm lazy but I can always find a quicker, easier way of doing things. I decided to apply this ability to bierock making.

After analyzing the process, I realized frozen bread dough would work great! Just defrost and let rise. Then you just had to take one loaf at a time and cut it in half, then cut each of those in half and then one more time. This gave me 8 lumps of dough. Then there was my "Eureka" moment, they did not have to be cut into squares!! If you placed the filling in the middle and pulled up in four places, they became neat little square bundles. They looked just like Julia's and it only took minutes instead of hours! On one of her visits to Canada, we made them for her and I think she was impressed both with the speed and by the fact my husband is now the official bierock pincher (see photo). Since we made them over the weekend, I have these photos to share and also cookbook #9 Kuche Kochen.