Rinderrouladen or rindsrouladen (I’ve seen the recipe named both ways) translates very simply to beef rolls. According to my mother, who spent a year and a half in Germany, it is a relatively popular recipe, and, while once deemed a dish for the “common” people, it is now used to feed a large group of people and considered a dish for festivities. My mother, however, did experience it more often as an everyday meal; her host mother was the first to cook it for her, but she further enjoyed the recipe when dance teachers brought rouladen to class.

Rouladen is, I would say, relatively representative of German cuisine. It has very little spice, just a bit of salt, pepper, mustard (which I didn’t use), and paprika (which, to me, gives the dish the slightest hint of smoke); a large amount of melt-in-your-mouth meats (bacon and steak, a combination I had never really thought to try); a savory, robust broth (some of which I set aside for a stew come December); and vegetables, such as carrots, onions, and pickles (the type of pickle used depends on the season).

In preparing for making rouladen, I relied heavily upon the recipe I found in Mimi Sheraton’s The German Cookbook in the University of Alabama’s Collections Library with my…more than subpar translation of my mother’s German cookbook, Die Gute Küche by Edda Meyer-Berkhout. Thankfully, my research (if you can call it that) was successful, and I made some absolutely delicious beef rolls in early September. While it has the potential to be time consuming, this hearty recipe is incredibly easy to prepare, particularly with its relatively short ingredient list.

I found all of my ingredients, which are listed below, at my local Publix and Wal-Mart.

Ingredients

 

• 2 ½ pounds round steak, thinly sliced to ¼ inch thickness
• 6 -9 slices of bacon
• 3 medium to large onions
• Parsley, about ¹/₃ of a bunch
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Flour, about 1 ½ cups or enough to dredge beef rolls in
• 3 tablespoons butter, bacon or kidney fat
• 1 cup of water or beef broth
• 1 carrot (optional)
• ½ cup sour cream (optional)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons tomato puree (optional)
• Dill pickle or paprika (optional; your choice)

In addition to your ingredients, you will definitely need toothpicks or kitchen string to hold the rolls together.

 

Directions

I was incredibly lucky and found the meat pre-prepared…in other words, Wal-Mart had the meat already sliced to the thickness necessary for the rolls.

If you can’t find the meat prepared this way, you have two options. The fun but tedious option is to pound out the meat yourself and slice it into medallions or strips about 5 inches long and 3 inches wide. The more boring but less time-consuming option is to ask the deli or the butchers to prepare it for you.

Lay out the strips of meat, and sprinkle salt, pepper, and paprika to taste over one side of the meat. You can also sprinkle some mustard on it as well, if that’s your preference. Remember, though, this is to taste, so if one slice gets more salt or more pepper than the others, it’s not that big of a deal.

Now I’m the type who likes to get all of my prep done before I actually put anything on heat. This is mostly because I have been cooking long enough to have mishaps where something got over- or undercooked due to variations in prep time.

As such, I chopped up my onions, carrots and parsley before I put the bacon into a pan. In essence, I got to see just how much food I had ahead of time. And, guys, really, there is so. Much. Onion. This meant that the pan that I was planning on using was simply not going to be deep enough to hold all the ingredients the recipe called for.

This is also why you read the recipe first before you make anything.

Because of the space constraints, I used my Dutch oven instead (the bigger pot most people make soup in for a larger family, not the saucepan).

I will also say that mincing and chopping the onions, carrots and parsley took a while.

The recipe was also rather stingy on description of how much parsley to use, so I cut up half and then halved it again. In other words, I really only used about ¼ to ¹/₃ of the total amount of parsley.

It was only at this point that I laid the bacon at the bottom of my Dutch oven. As I was laying the bacon out, I came across a small problem: some of my bacon was very fatty with very little meat. If this happens to you, don’t worry about it! Just add a couple extra slices of bacon to make up for the thinner pieces.

At this point, add the onion and the parsley to the pan. For me, there was so much onion and parsley that you couldn’t really see the bacon underneath it.

Only then did I turn on the heat. I put the dial for my burner at about a four (if the dial were a clock, put it around 7 or 8 o’clock), so it’s not going to get super hot, super fast. This is good because all we want is for the vegetables to be soft but not browned. Again, the vegetables are cooked, not the bacon. The bacon will cook later when you simmer the rolls for an hour. Here I will direct you to my next love note.

I personally just let the pot sit there for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally and flipping the bacon once every three or so minutes.

After that, remove the Dutch oven from the heat. This is an important step because you will likely use your hands to spread this mixture onto the steak. You do not want to burn yourself, so please, please, please, remove the bacon, onion, and parsley mixture from the heat.

As the mixture is cooling, I would suggest getting out a bowl and putting the flour into it. Make sure the bowl is relatively wide at the top so you can fit your hand into it. If you don’t have a bowl that works, a plate is fine, too.

Once the mixture is cool, pull out the bacon slices and lay them onto the individual steak pieces. I used about half a slice per steak piece.

From there, you’re going to spoon the onion and parsley mixture onto the steak pieces. Use as much or as little as you’d like…and as the meat can hold! The remainders can be used for the broth later.

At this point, roll the slices of meat from the short side and secure with toothpicks or kitchen string (I used toothpicks). Then dredge the rolls in the flour—or, more colloquially, make sure flour is covering the outside surface of the meat.

I noticed that a ton of the stuffing (the onion and the parsley mixture) was falling out at this point, partly because of how much I had to handle each roll to get it covered in flour. If this happens, it’s not a big deal; just push the stuffing back into the rolls or toss it back into the Dutch oven to become part of the broth!

I used a separate pan for this next step simply so I could remove the rolls and put them directly into the Dutch oven.

Heat about 4 tablespoons of butter (or bacon or kidney fat, if you’d prefer) in a pan. Then brown the rolls on all sides in the hot oil. While this could take about 10 minutes, if you have your heat on a relatively high setting (as I did), it could take a significantly less amount of time. As such, keep an eye on the meat—this is not a step to go check Snapchat on!

Once you have removed the rolls to from the pan (place them on a plate or, as I did, in the Dutch oven), add the remaining onion and carrot to the leftover oil and brown them. It shouldn’t take too long, certainly no more than 5 minutes. Then put the veggies into the pot.

Measure out 1 cup of beef broth or water and add to the pot. If you want to add tomato puree, now is the time to do it. In my experience, all it really does is add a bit more flavor and soften the meat, but the rolls already end up incredibly soft, so it’s up to you.

Set the pot to simmer on a low heat (I went for setting three or about 10 o’clock if the dial were a clock) for an hour to an hour and a half. Add liquid if and as necessary.

Now is the time to step away! Don’t go to the store or anything, but go do something else. This time around, I called my friend, but I’ve definitely watched some House Hunters International (thank you, HGTV!) to pass the time.

In the final 15 minutes or so, add flour to the broth. Quite frankly, I’ve got enough experience in the kitchen that I just eyeball it at this point. What you really want to do is thicken up the broth a bit, and flour is the best way to do that.

If you like a more watery consistency, you might only add a pinch of flour, and those who like a thicker broth will add closer to one or two tablespoons. I’m on the latter end of the spectrum, so I added closer to three tablespoons. This is also the time to add sour cream, if you’d like. I have seen some variations where red wine is added in the last 15 minutes, but, as I’m currently underage, that option was simply not in the cards for me!

Finally, you are ready to serve your rouladen. If you can, remove the toothpicks or kitchen string before you serve it!

Typically, rouladen is served with potatoes or spaetzle, but quite frankly, they are equally delicious on their own.

I almost couldn’t get them out of the pot because they were just so tender. They fell apart, absolutely melted in my mouth, the steak providing just enough resistance that hitting the onion and bacon was a surprise. The fat from the bacon had melded with the onions, making it just this side of gooey, and the pepper, parsley and paprika melded into a deep, smoky flavor.

You ever get an itch on your back in that one spot you can’t reach? Ever had a friend or family member scratch that spot for you? That relief and utter pleasure, the melting of your tense muscles until you could be a puddle on the floor—that is what it felt like taking my first bite of rouladen.

Overall, I’d say my prep time, or the time it took for me to get to the point of simmering the rolls, was about two to three hours. However, the prep should probably only take about an hour for someone who is experienced in the kitchen.

In my case, I had a few extenuating circumstances that lengthened my prep time considerably. For one, I have incredibly dull knives and small cutting boards. Throughout my prep process, I had to compensate for this. I can really only mince about a quarter of an onion at a time on my cutting boards, so I was spending a lot of time transferring the onion between pots or plates or bowls. My knife smushed a good deal of my parsley because it is dull, so I had to mince some extra to reach the amount I thought was ideal.

I also share an incredibly small kitchen with two roommate, both of whom needed to use some of the counter space while I was working. As such, I lost even more ability to move around, and I had to watch my elbows so I didn’t hurt them.

The first question my roommates asked when I finished was: Would I make this again?

My answer: For myself, no. It really is a decent amount of work, and with the limitations I had, it just isn’t worth it for me to make this if I’m the only one eating it.

However, I would gladly make this for my boyfriend, my family, or (maybe) my classmates. While it only makes about 10-16 rolls (depending on whether you’re using pre-sliced steak or doing it yourself), you can easily double or triple the recipe and serve it to a large crowd.

I hope you enjoy! Mahlzeit!

 

 

Ingredients

• 2 ½ pounds round steak, thinly sliced to ¼ inch thickness
• 6 -9 slices of bacon
• 3 medium to large onions
• Parsley, about ¹/₃ of a bunch
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Flour, about 1 ½ cups or enough to dredge beef rolls in
• 3 tablespoons butter, bacon or kidney fat
• 1 cup of water or beef broth
• 1 carrot (optional)
• ½ cup sour cream (optional)
• 1 to 2 tablespoons tomato puree (optional)
• Dill pickle or paprika (optional; your choice)

Directions

1. If necessary, prepare the meat by pounding to ¼ inch thickness and cutting meat into approximately 5 inch long and 3 inch wide strips.
2. Sprinkle thinly with salt and pepper to taste.

Optional step: sprinkle with mustard to taste.

3. Lay the six to nine slices of bacon at the bottom of a pan.
4. Peel and mince the onions. Set one minced onion aside for sauce. Place into pan.
5. Separate about a third of the parsley out. Mince and place into pan with onion.
6. Slowly cook bacon, onions and parsley until vegetables are soft but not brown.
7. Remove bacon, onion and parsley mixture from heat and let cool.
8. Lay slices of bacon onto meat.
9. Spoon onion and parsley mixture onto meat.
10. Roll the slices of meat from the short side.
11. Secure with toothpick or thick cooking string.
12. Dredge rolls in flour (a.k.a. roll them in flour).
13. In approximately 10 minutes, brown the meat on all sides in hot butter or fat.
14. Briefly roast the remaining onions and soup vegetables (a.k.a. the sliced carrot) and pour on the meat side with warm water or broth.

Optional step: add tomato puree here.

15. Simmer for about an hour to an hour and a half.
16. Mix the broth with some flour to thicken.
17. As possible before serving, remove the toothpicks or threads.