Hello everybody, today I would like to share my “Rinderrouladen” recipe with you. This Westphalian classic can almost be referred to as an ambassador of traditional German home cooking and is one of my favorite dishes. Our delicious, classic German “Rinderrouladen” are best described as stewed “beef rolls” that are traditionally prepared with bacon, pickles and onions. To create an exceptionally delicious and savory flavor, I prefer to use a generous amount of spicy mustard to season the meat. In all those years of preparing this hearty recipe, I have hardly changed anything in our family recipe, that has been used by both my grandmother and mother.
Grandma’s traditional german beef rouladen recipe
You will get the best “Rouladen” with long, very thin slices of beef. “Top Sirloin” is an excellent choice for this as well as “Top Round”, “Flank” or “Skirt” Steaks. If the slices of meat are cut too thick, it’s worth flattening them a bit to make sure they cook evenly and are wonderfully tender. Try to free up as much work space as possible right from the start so that you can spread out the “Rouladen” nicely.
Make your own homemade german Rouladen
Season the beef slices with salt and pepper and coat them generously with hot mustard afterwards. For the filling, cut bacon, onions and pickles. To make sure my children like the filling, I switched to not stuffing the bacon, onions and pickles into the meat in strips, but dice everything quite small. You can then spread the
mixture on the beef seasoned beef slices
. The “Beef Rouladen” are then rolled up and tied with some kitchen twine so that the filling does not fall out of the meat while searing them in a big “Roaster” pan. It´s important that the “Rouladen” are sautéed very hot on all sides, preferably in clarified butter. This way they get
a really nice brown color. I then add the rest of the filling to the roasting pan and fry it with a little tomato paste. This gives the sauce a nice color and also makes it taste stronger later.
After browning you have to deglaze the “Rouladen “with some beef stock or broth and red wine. If you don’t want to use red wine, use a little more stock. Most of the time I roast the “Rouladen” on the stove, but you can also cook them in a closed roaster in the oven at 170- 180 degrees.
For as long as I can remember “Beef Rouladen” have been classically prepared with spicy mustard, thick bacon, onion and pickles in our family. In the past, my grandmother used to cut the bacon into strips, which basically resulted in two of my sisters not liking the filling and taking each other’s food apart to trade and exchange their unloved ingredients.
When my children eventually started to sort out the bacon, I decided to cut all the ingredients for the filling into quite small cubes, and there hasn’t been a complaint since. Now that they are both adults, they appreciate the delicious “Rouladen” even more, and it is a real “Family Favorite”,
that we often eat on Sundays.
My children prefer to eat “Homemade Red Cabbage” and mashed potatoes with this classic “Sunday Lunch”, while my husband prefers “Spaetzli” or “Potato Dumplings” as a side dish. These classic German “Beef Rouladen” are super easy to prepare. After browning them, you can leave them to cook for around 100-120 minutes, which leaves you a lot of time to prepare the side dishes or anything else you have on your schedule. There are many variations of the classic German “Beef Rouladen”.
Classic “Beef Rouladen” with bacon, onion and pickles
in a hearty delicious dark gravy.
You´ll find recipes with minced meat, tomatoes and Serrano ham or mushrooms. But the most popular is and remains the classic filling of bacon, onions and pickles. These traditional and comforting recipes are simply perfect as they are and always take you back in time for a little moment. The gravy almost cooks itself and tastes wonderful. To leave nothing to chance, I like to use a really good beef stock from the jar.
Deglazing with red wine after sautéing the meat gives the sauce a really special flavor. It’s worth paying attention to the quality of the meat, which iswhy I like to have it cut fresh at my local butcher. After all, you want to end up with wonderfully tender and flavorful “Rouladen”. If we want to have “Beef Rouladen” on Sunday, I prepare them on Saturday already, this way the “Rouladen” have more time to infuse and get a more intense flavor and I win a little extra time on my favorite day of the week. Here is some advice to make your roulades a real success:
- When you buy the meat, make sure they are cut from the topside. These are particularly
suitable because they are nice and tender. The meat is short-fibered, lean and very finely
streaked with veins of fat. - Make sure that the meat slices are not cut too thick. This way you don’t need to flatten them
later. A thickness of 0.5-1 cm is best to cook them evenly and get a tender result. - To make sure the meat doesn´t become dry you should braise the “Rouladen” slowly at a
not too high temperature. Give them a minimum of 2 hours to cook. - The classic stuffing consists of spicy mustard, bacon, onion and pickles. I use mustard
generously and always use a spicy mustard, preferably the brand with the lion. Do not worry
if it is not available in your region. Any other spicy mustard will work as well. - I use kitchen twine to wrap and tie the meat. You can also use metal skewers or toothpicks
or whatever you have at hand to make sure they stay together. - Sauté the meat well on all sides in a large roaster pan.
- The Rouladen can be prepared very well a day before. Then you only have to warm them
up slowly in the gravy the next day.
I hope you enjoy reading, strolling-through and trying out my cooking and baking recipes!
Delicious “Beef Rouladen” Recipe. Classic “Beef Rouladen” with bacon, onion and pickles
in a hearty, delicious dark gravy. Best served with delicious “Homemade Red Cabbage”,
mashed potatoes or “German Bread Dumplings”.
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 cutting board
- 1 paring knife
- 1 whisk
- 1 Kitchen twine or metal skewers
- 1 Spoon
Ingredients
- 6 long beef slices long beef slices approx. 180-200 g each
- 120 g thick Bacon
- 2 onions large
- 120 g pickles
- 6 tbsp mustard one spoon per roulade
- 3 tbsp butter clarified
- salt to taste
- pepper for the roulade
- 1 tbsp Tomato paste
- 200 ml Red wine or beef stock
- 2 tsp Corn flour or cornstarch
- 500 ml beef stock or pour over or vegetable stock
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp mustard to taste the sauce
Instructions
- Prepare all the ingredients, dry the meat with kitchen paper. If your beef slices are cut a little too thick, place them in a large freezer bag or individually between plastic wrap. Then you can pound them flat with a meat tenderizer until the Roulade is about 0.5 cm thick. Peel the onions and dice them very small, together with the bacon and the pickles.
- Season the meat with salt and pepper and coat it well with the mustard afterwards.
- 3.Put about 2 tablespoons of the cucumber, bacon, onion mixture on top of the mustard.
- Carefully roll and wrap up the Roulade and tie it with some kitchen twine to make sure the filling does not fall out while browning or cooking later. You can also use metal skewers or toothpicks. I always use kitchen twine.
- Preheat your roaster pan with clarified butter and
- fry the “Rouladen” in the hot butter from every side. Add the leftovers of your stuffing with some tomato paste.
- Deglaze with red wine and beef stock, add the bay leaf and simmer for about 2 hours on low heat or in the oven. You can strain the sauce once it's finished, but I prefer to leave the pieces of stuffing in the sauce. If necessary, I bind it with some cornstarch and season it with salt and some mustard.
