Hello, every birdy. Today we are going to be looking at a recipe that I grew up with, and apparently it did not originate in Germany, but the midwest. More notable Nebraska. 

For the character in question, Clorinde. She is a fighter lady from Fontaine and besides that I have no idea what her personality is or anything like that. She states that her favorite food is “ meaty dishes in general, but only if the meat is fresh.”

I wrote this my junior year of high school for a class called Culture and Foods:

“Runzas are a fast food favorite in Colorado and Nebraska. My mom and dad grew up in Califorina, but they spent most of their lives in Colorado and Nebraska. During the winter time my mom makes them. (Don’t mind the fact that I made them in July.) I can always tell when my mom is making Runzas  because it smells like cabbage and hamburger. 

We always have ketchup and mustard (and horseradish) on the table. It is really good right off the cooking rack. It might be still warm, but it is so good. There is no need for forks and knives (oh sweet child, you used a fork to eat it this time. But that’s fine still tasted good.) We use are (our) hands and dunk them in the mustard of ketchup. I use the ketchup – I don’t like mustard. (still don’t like mustard, but used horseradish and is was amazing.)”

According to the recipe that I made over a decade ago, you are going to need:

Favorite bread dough recipe (I used the Betty Crocker White bread Recipe)

•  2 pkgs of active dry yeast (1 pkg of yeast = 2 ¼ tsp of yeast in the jar)
• ¾ Cup warm water (105 to 115 F) 
• 2 Cups luke warm milk (scalded then cooled)
• 3 Tablespoons sugar 
• 3 Tablespoons Shortening 
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 7 to 8 cups all purpose flour 
• Margarine or butter

The first thing we are going to do is make the bread. So that it can rise and be ready to form the runzas by the time the meat and cabbage are done cooking. 

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water in your large mixing bowl. Now when I say warm water I don’t mean water that will burn your skin. And you don’t want the water to be to cold so it wouldn’t activate the yeast. And every time the temperature is going to seem like it is different so just go with your gut feeling when it comes to the temperature of the water. 

In a sauce pan you are going to add in your milk, sugar, shortening, and salt. You will want to heat that up until it is just luke warm. That means you can feel the heat when you put your finger in it but it won’t burn you. My has told me that you want to do this on the stove and add all of the ingredients to the pot while the milk gets warm so that you aren’t fighting globs of shortening. 

Stir this mixture into the yeast mixture. 

Now comes the fun part. We are going to add about 4 cups of flour to the mixture. Add a little bit at a time, continuing to add flour until the dough comes off the sides of the bowl. 

Lightly flour your work surface, and turn your dough out of the bowl onto the surface. You are going to knead the bread for about 10 minutes or until the dough is smooth and elasticity. In the same bowl you use add some shortening or oil to the sides of the bowl. This helps the dough to grow. Put the dough back in the bowl, add a bit of oil to the top of the bread. Cover and let it rise, place it in a warm, dry place for about 1 hour.  Or if you have a fancy new oven like I do, you can press a bread proof button that heat the oven to 95F. First time I’ve had something like that, it seems futuristic. 

While the bread is in the oven or off to the side to rise, we are going to be working on the filling. 

You are going to need:

• 1 onion, chopped 
• 1 small head of cabbage shredded, as if for coleslaw
• 1/1/2 pounds of hamburger 
• 1 to 2 Tbsps black pepper 
• Salt to taste

Cook all of these ingredients in a large skillet. 

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

After hamburger is no longer pink, and the bread dough is done rising. You are going to roll out the bread dough into small rectangles, approximately 5×3 inches. (Just FYI we do NOT measure out the rectangles, we kinda just wing it.) 

Place some hamburger mixture in the middle  of the rectangle: enough to fill but not too much that it can’t be sealed. 

When finished filling, seal edges creating a pocket. Do not worry if one of them looks different than another. They are going to look different just trust the process and keep going. 

Placed the filled Runzas on greased cookie/cooking sheet. 

Bake for approximately 15 minutes or until golden brown. 

To eat, dip runza in ketchup and mustard. Or if you are like me and need a little bit more heat, you can dip in horseradish and it tastes so good. 

This is one of those recipes that is just so good. It’s not an easy dish to make, but the results are worth the time you spend in the kitchen. It’s a great way to use up a whole head of cabbage. And you could make it with chicken or pork if you wanted to. We have also added cheese in before and it was really good. Tasted like a cheeseburger in a bun. 

Feel free to check it out in the keep reading down below. I hope that you liked it, feel free to check out any of my other recipes: Everything from Almonds to Zucchini. See you all in the next recipe.