Rinderrouladen

Ingredients

• Beef, thinly sliced — 150-200 g each, beaten thin800 g
• Medium mustard4 tbsp
• Smoked bacon120 g
• Gherkins — quartered lengthways4
• Onions2
• Carrot1
• Tomato paste1 tbsp
• Dry red wine200 ml
• Beef stock500 ml
• Bay leaves2
• Oil for frying2 tbsp
• Salt and pepperto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Beat the beef to five millimetres, season it and spread with mustard. Lay the bacon, strips of onion and a gherkin along the short edge.

   15 min

2. 2

   Roll them up, tucking the sides in, and secure with a skewer or string. Firm but not tight — the filling expands.

   10 min

3. 3

   Brown the rolls hard on every side and lift them out. In the same fat fry the remaining onion and the carrot, add the tomato paste and give it a minute.

   12 min

4. 4

   Pour in the wine, let it reduce by half, add the stock and bay. Return the rolls, cover and braise over a low flame for an hour and a half.

   95 min

5. 5

   Lift the rolls out and remove the skewers. Blend the gravy in the pot or crush it with a masher, then reduce it to the thickness you want.

   8 min

About the dish

Rouladen is a Sunday dish and the whole point is the long braise. The beef is not the tender cut: fibrous topside turns softer than fillet over an hour and a half, because the collagen becomes gelatine.

The mustard goes on generously, straight onto the meat. It does not read as sharp in the finished dish: its acid works as a marinade from the inside and the flavour dissolves into the gravy.

The gravy is made from what is left in the pot and is not strained clear. The vegetables that fell apart over two hours are the thickening.

Worth knowing

• — Ask the butcher for beef cut for rouladen — it is a standard request and the slices come at the right thickness.
• — Test with a fork: it should go in without resistance. Tough meat needs more time, not more heat.
• — The classic sides are red cabbage and dumplings. The sour cabbage matters: it balances a rich gravy.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

640 kcal

Protein

52 g

Fat

34 g

Carbs

14 g

More from Germany

• Käsespätzle — Swabian egg noodles layered with cheese and buried under fried onion.
• Sauerbraten — Beef steeped for days in a vinegar marinade and braised in it, with a gravy thickened on gingerbread.
• Swabian potato salad — Potato dressed in warm stock with vinegar and oil. No mayonnaise — southern Germany does not admit it here.