The Bierock

Unless you’re from Kansas or Nebraska, you’ve probably never heard of a bierock (a small pastry filled with cooked ground beef). Nebraska has a restaurant chain devoted to the bierock called Runza, and variations on this meat-filled treat are ubiquitous around the world. In Louisiana they are kolaches, in Michigan and Cornwall, England, they are the Cornish pasty, in Poland and Ukraine they are pierogies, and Argentina has a version we know as the empanada. The most mainstream of all descendants of the bierock is the Hot Pocket, the microwavable portable meal found in many gas stations, 7-Elevens, and grocery store freezer aisles throughout America. The list goes on, and similarities abound, but they all descend from the same basic Volga German recipe brought to the Heartland in the late 1800s.