Bierocks are meat-filled pocket pastries originating in Eastern Europe, possibly in Russia. The dish is common among the Volga German community in the United States and Argentina. It was brought to the United States in the 1880s by German Russian Mennonite immigrants. Bierock is filled with cooked and seasoned ground beef, shredded cabbage and onions, then oven baked until the dough is golden brown. Some variants include grated carrots.
Other spellings are bieroch, beerock, berrock, bierox, beerrock and kraut bierock in the U.S, and Pirok or Kraut Pirok in Argentina.
Bierocks are similar to the pirozhki of Russian cuisine. It is likely that etymologically bierock (pronounced somewhere between “brock” and “brook” in Nebraska and “beer-rock” in Kansas and Oklahoma) is borrowed from Russian pirog, or from some other East or West Slavic vernacular.
Ingredients
- 2 packages (7g Packet) Yeast
- ½ cups Sugar
- 1-½ Tablespoon Salt
- 3-½ cups Warm Water
- ½ cups Oil
- 1 Tablespoon Vinegar
- 8 cups Flour
- 2 cloves Garlic, Minced
- 1 whole Onion, Chopped
- 1 pound Ground Beef
- 1 whole Cabbage, Shredded
- Salt And Pepper, to taste
Preparation
Mix the yeast, sugar, sat, warm water, oil, vinegar, and flour together. Let rise 1 hour. Punch down. Let rise 45 minutes. Roll out to about 1/16″ thick.
Saute garlic and onions; add ground beef and fry until browned. Add cabbage and fry until tender (tastes better if cabbage is browned well). Salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the dough into 5×5″ squares and put a generous portion of the beef mixture on the middle of each square. Gather all 4 corners together and pinch shut each diagonal seam toward the center. Turn upside down on a baking sheet.
Bake for 20 minutes at 400 degrees. Brush with butter when they come out of the oven.
**Jen’s Additional Notes**
You can save some of the dough and fill it with sweets for dessert: I did strawberries and Nutella, but blueberries and sour cream would also be great
I found the meat and cabbage filling to be a bit bland. Next time I will add more pepper and salt and definitely more garlic than was called for.
These are PERFECT for picnics. If you have a trip to the zoo planned, I highly recommend taking these as they are good hot or cold.
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Crystal Gomez says
December 10, 2015 at 7:18 amThese look yummy! I pinned it for later, I’m gonna have to try them out!
Dorothy Boucher says
August 25, 2015 at 8:51 amThese sound very tasty, and my mom use to make something like this, a pastry with meat and cabbage
inside,, loved them 😉