Deb's Fleisch Perishky / Meat Buns

I had a fun baking 900 meat buns. Yes, that is right, this is not a typo, we made 900 meat buns for my sister by loves nieces wedding this past fall. 

We used her sisters recipe which I modified just a little. 

It makes 75 Dozen 2" in size.  Personally, I like them a bit bigger.

However 1 recipe of dough using 3 lbs of ground beef makes about 300 meat buns.  

The recipe can be cut in half easily to make less. But believe me, 300 meat buns get eaten rather quickly. Especially at Christmas time. 

This was not a one person job, I had help from my brother, sister by love and their girls. It is always more fun doing it as a group. I made the dough recipe 3 times, the meat filling recipe 2 times, and 1 recipe of sauerkraut and bacon. 

Now that Christmas is approaching, get your friends and family together and make a batch or two. Put on the Christmas carols and hot cocoa and have fun together. Feel free to half the recipe which is very easily done if you don't need a large quantity. 

Dough:

• 1 cup warm water
• 5 cups warm milk
• 1/2 cup margarine
• 1/2 cup lard
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 2 tablespoons instant yeast
• 1 egg
• about 12 cups of flour divided

1.  In a large bowl add about 9 cups of flour, sugar, salt and dry yeast. Mix well.
2. Add the lard and margarine and mix with a pastry blender to cut the fat into pea sized pieces. 
3. Add the warm water, milk and beaten eggs. Place the bowl of dough in a sink of warm water for about 15 minutes until the dough bubbles.
4. Continue adding the remaining flour until you have a soft dough. You can do this by hand or in a large dough mixer with a dough hook.
5. Let rise until double in bulk for about 45 minutes.
6. Take a piece of dough, roll thin, and cut with desired size cookie cutter. 
7. Fill with the following fillings, pinch the seams together. Using about 1 rounded teaspoon. 
8. Let rise on greased pans or pans lined in parchment paper for an hour. 
9. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until they are browned to your liking. 
10. These freeze very well by placing them in zippered plastic bags. Remove as much air as possible.
11. If you want to use both filling options as written, you have to make 2 recipes of dough. 

Meat Filling:

• 3 lbs of lean ground beef
• 4 envelopes of onion soup mix
• 2 tablespoons flour
• enough water to make a thick gravy
• 2 cups of dried fine bread crumbs ( I did not use the full 2 cups)
• black pepper to taste. No need to add salt since the soup mix is salty enough.

1. In a very large frying pan, brown ground beef but do not drain. 
2. Add the onion soup mix, and flour. 
3. Add enough water to make a thick gravy about 2 cups.
4. Simmer about 40 minutes.
5. Sprinkle in enough bread crumbs to absorb the gravy. 
6. Cool filling. 

Sauerkraut Filling:

• 1 pound bacon, finely diced
• 2 medium onions, finely diced
• 2 - 2 liter jars of sauerkraut, drained and rinsed

1. In a large frying pan, brown the bacon, drain most of the fat but leave a little, maybe 2 tablespoons.
2. Add the onion and cook until the onions begin to soften.
3. Add the drained and rinsed sauerkraut and continue to saute until the cabbage takes on a light brown color. 
4. Cool.
5. Follow baking instructions for the meat buns.