Nebraska, Part 1. Bie - rockin' it.

Nebraska: A Kool State

The next state on the docket, Nebraska, is home to so many rivers it actually gets its name from the Native American word meaning “flat water”, referring to the Platte River that flows throughout the state. And speaking of water, the water flavoring Kool-aid was invented in Nebraska by a man named Edwin Perkins. Kool-aid was originally a soft drink named Fruit Smack but was later turned into a powder flavoring to make shipping and distribution easier.

So what's for dinner? While planning our Nebraska meal we found some meals that we’ve considered before like chili and cinnamon rolls. But we found some new ones too, like biscuits & gravy, mac and cheese, or chicken fried steak. And of course, we had to consider the famous Omaha steaks.

We couldn’t settle on just one meal, so after some discussion, we decided to do a whole day dedicated to States on My Plate. Bierocks (pronounced BEE-rocks) for lunch, and steak plus lobster for dinner. No, lobster tails aren't exactly a Nebraskan food, but I love seafood, and will take any excuse to get more seafood.

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We be kneadin' some bierocks.

Bierocks originally came over to America along with many German families in the mid and late 1800’s. And as Germans moved west more and more, bierocks came along with them. They are popular with working families because you can make lots of them at once and they stay good for a few weeks.

To start our bierocks, we mixed the milk, yeast, sugar, flour, butter, salt, and an egg. After the ingredients were mixed in a bowl we put our dough on the counter and kneaded our dough with our hands. Which, if you read some previous posts, you know I didn’t love. But I also feel like I have become a bit more comfortable with it, what with all the dough we’ve been making lately. Anyway, between me and mom we kneaded the dough for about 10 minutes, as directed by our recipe.

When we were done kneading, the dough was a little tacky, but not necessarily sticky. We then formed our dough into a ball and put it in a greased bowl. Then we rolled the dough around to coat it, put a towel over the top of the bowl, and let the dough rise for an hour.

We worked on the filling for the bierocks while the dough rose. First, we browned some meat for around 6 minutes. Then we drained our meat and added onions, cooking them until they were transparent. No matter how many times I see it happen, it never ceases to amaze me that the onions become transparent after we cook them. Then some cabbage went in, and we let it cook for another 7 minutes. At this point, it was starting to smell really good.

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We be stuffin' some bierocks.

After the dough was done rising, it had doubled in size! Crazy how that happens, isn’t it? Once again, it never ceases to amaze me. We divided our dough up into eight balls and then flattened the balls out. We put some of our cabbage-meat-onion mixture in the center of each piece of dough. Then we pinched the corners of our dough together to make some buns. We then let the bierocks rise on a greased pan.

We came back about 40 minutes later. The bierocks had once again expanded. We brushed the bierocks with milk, and let them cook. Once they were done cooking, about 20 minutes later, we pulled them out of the oven. Then we let them cool. They sounded sort of hollow when we tapped them.

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Meat pockets are delicious.

Then we served up the bierocks and dug in. I loved the combination of the meat, cabbage, and the dough of the bierocks was nice and hard on the outside, but soft on the inside. They were delicious, and I really enjoyed the crunching sound that was made when you bit into one of the bierocks.

Try them for yourself. Here is the recipe we used: https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/bierocks/