I grew up in a border city which pretty much scarred me for life. The main reason being was that I was forced to watch commercials for all the amazing things I couldn’t get in Canada. No doubt the neighbours heard the wailing whenever a White Castle commercial came on.
Today’s recipe comes from Patrick, who grew up in Minnesota, home of the hotdish and hot beef commercials. This is his mom’s recipe for bierocks. I’d never heard of bierocks and got pretty excited, thinking that beer and rocks might be involved. Turns out bierocks are like meat turnovers.
Patrick’s recipe calls for Pillsbury Grands biscuit dough. I went to two grocery stores and a Wal-Mart, but the only Grands I could find were the cinnamon bun kind. I’m assuming those weren’t an option, but folks in Minnesota may be freakier than I’ve been led to believe. In any case, I don’t think Pillsbury Grands biscuits are available in Canada. So I opted for Pillsbury pizza dough.
Patrick, if I’m ever stateside, I’m heading straight to Winn-Dixie (after a pitstop at White Castle), filling up the trunk of my Chevette with tubes of Grands biscuits, heading back to Canada and making bierocks the way they were goddamn meant to be made.
Having said that, the pizza dough was easy to work with. And the bierocks were tasty as heck. And ball-shaped. Kinda like a Pizza Pocket. Only with sauerkraut. And, uh, not the pizza part.
Thanks, Patrick! Don’t forget to come back Friday for another reader recipe.
1 lb ground beef or mild sausage
1 can saurkraut
Some diced onions and diced bell peppers
1 tube Grands biscuit dough
Fry the meat with the onions and peppers. When cooked, drain grease and then mix in saurkraut. Set aside.
Pop open the biscuit dough and, using some flour and a rolling pin, flatten out the biscuit, flipping and flouring so that it doesn't stick to the rolling pin. Spoon some filling into the centre of the dough. Fold the dough over, making a ball (pouch). Place fold side down onto cookie sheet. Repeat until all dough or filling is used up, whichever comes first.
Bake for however long the biscuit dough tube tells you. When done, spread some butter on ‘em and enjoy!
Source: Caker Patrick via his mom
These look delicious! There's nothing quite like burning your tongue on a dough pocket stuffed with filling the temperature of molten lava on a cold fall day ( cause frankly who can wait for something as good as this to cool off when you pull it out of the oven). I'm sure I've seen biscuit dough tubes in the stores here in Saskatchewan, but then of course we're very caker around these parts being farmers and all.
ReplyDeleteWhat? You mean I could've hopped on my private caker jet, flown to Moose Jaw, picked up some Pillsbury Grands and flown back to Ontario again? Actually, I saw the biscuit dough, too, but Patrick specified Grands, so I figured I had to stick with that.
DeleteBTW, please send my regards to Loreburn, Elbow and Strongfield. I've been to all of them.
I bet these would be good dipped in Thousand Island dressing, kind of like a Midwestern Caker Reuben. Also, I really think you need a "ball-shaped" category for your recipe labels.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good suggestion, Kari. I wish I tried dipping them in Thousand Island. I did put a drizzle of mustard on them, which was pretty tasy. I totally need to do a ball-shaped category. And maybe a triangle category, but there are lots of those, too.
DeleteHey!
ReplyDeleteBierocks were brought to north America by Mennonites!
Geez I've made 1,000's of those things for bake sales & what not for Mennonite Brethren high school & church I went to as a teen.
http://tieszenlowgermanmennonite.blogspot.com/2012/03/bierock.html
http://ayearofmennonitecooking.blogspot.com/2010/04/easy-to-toss-easy-to-eat-bierocks.html
Credit where credit is due.
Gott Saajne!
Thanks for the background info. Although I noticed that one of the recipes said you have to let the dough rise for an hour and a half. Do you know how many beirocks you can make in an hour and a half using Pillsbury dough? Like, a lot.
DeleteI grew up on a farm in Saskatchewan and my mom used to make these with bread dough. Sometimes they had meat, onions and sauerkraut in the middle, sometimes just onions and sauerkraut. They were delicious, and you brought back a very nice childhood memory. Many of the recipes on your website are things we ate when I was a kid. We weren't Mennonites, but my background is German/Austrian.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad these brought back some memories. I was in Saskatchewan quite often as a kid, but we never had these. My grandmother was Norwegian. She was fond of pig's feet. I wish she'd been fond of bierocks.
DeleteDefinitely German in heritage. My Granny made these all the time for us. Super great dipping them in ketchup with a slice of block cheese. Super tasty lunch.
DeleteYou were lucky. My mom used to open a can of Campbell's vegetable soup and make a peanut butter sandwich for me. Vegetables + PB = weird taste combo.
DeleteThese look really good. You can get regular-size tubes of Pillsbury 'Country Biscuits' Canada. I guess they have to call them 'Country' biscuits so we Canadians don't confuse them with cookies or scones.
ReplyDeleteI saw those, but worried they wouldn't be big enough to hold the meat stuffing. Having said that, you could likely combine two and make a bierock sandwich. Hmm...that sounds good.
DeleteI cracked up about the border city thing. After college, I lived in suburban Detroit for a couple of years. I would hear ads for new items at McDonalds, only to find out they were for Canadian McDonalds only! And I'd hear ads for restaurants promoting poutine--not fair! I still have yet to try it but it sounds delicious!
ReplyDeleteJason
I can't vouch for McDonalds poutine, sadly. But I think Canada was the first place that McDonalds had pizza. And we all know how successful that was.
DeleteMy mom always made them with a kind of white roll dough, so I would consider your recipe more authentic. I don't know if that's good or bad for you.
ReplyDeleteThis blog walks a fine line between the good/bad thing, Denise.
Delete