Fleisch Perisky ( Meat Buns)

Shar-on's Note:

Fleisch perisky are traditionally served warm as a accompaniment for borscht, but they also make an exceptional appetizer or snack. A Mennonite lady in Winnipeg taught me how to make these. At Christmas they are very popular. Not many cooks make these, so if you are one that enjoys making them, you can have many customers. I have made over 300 DOZEN just before Christmas. If you have leftover dough, you can make zweibach or plain buns. These freeze well.

• Total Time: 5 hrs 12 mins
• Prep Time: 5 hrs
• Cook Time: 12 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 20 dozen

Bun Dough

• 1 cup warm water
• 4 teaspoons granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons fast rising yeast
• ½ cup melted margarine
• ½ cup melted lard
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 5 cups warm milk
• 1 egg
• 12 cups all-purpose flour (or more)

Meat Filling

• 2 lbs lean ground beef
• ½ cup margarine
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 cups water
• 2 envelopes Lipton Onion Soup Mix
• ½ package no-name onion soup mix
• 1 -2 cup fine dry breadcrumb

Directions:

1. Brown ground beef in a large skillet.
2. Melt 1/2 cup margarine in a separate saucepan over medium heat.
3. Add 2 T. flour, stirring to incorporate.
4. Add dry onion soup mixes and water to make a thick gravy.
5. Bring to boil.
6. Pour gravy over browned beef and simmer for about 1 hour. (I do this in my oven),
7. Add fine dry bread crumbs just enough so mixture hold together. Do this just before you start forming your meat buns.
8. In my Bosch mixing bowl mix the warm water, sugar and yeast.
9. Warm the milk, margarine and lard in the Microwave about 3 - 4 minutes, until marg and lard have melted.
10. Add to yeast mixture, and add about 8 cups of flour.
11. Allow this to proof, then add salt, egg and remaining flour, just enough to make a soft dough, allowing the machine to kneed the dough.
12. Place dough in a large bowl ( I use my tupperware fix-n-mix bowl). Let rise 10 - 15 minutes.
13. Form perisky by pinching off pieces of dough the size of a walnut. Flatten the dough in your palm of hand and put about 1 tsp. filling on the dough. Pinch dough around the filling to seal well.
14. Place on baking sheets and let rise. You can often starting baking the first pans before you are finished panning the remaining ones.
15. Bake at 400 deg. for 10 - 12 minutes or golden brown.
16. Enjoy !

Reviews

[RuthieG]

These little meat buns were fantastic. We had many compliments on them. My kids also loved them in their lunches with a pkg of ketchup for dipping. I will use this recipe alot.

[MerBot]

Absolutely fantastic. I'm from the Niagara area and after moving to Toronto and away from Mennonite cooking, REALLY missed meat perishky. I tried other recipes that didn't come close -- this one is fantastic. The dough is absolutely perfect.

I did make some changes in the filling but they were very minor.

UPDATE: I'm doing a "vegetarian month" and this is the week I try to go completely vegan, so I just made a completely vegan version. They are phenomenal - and I say this as a committed meat-eater!

To make this version:
- Use oil in the dough, and no egg..
- To make the filling, I mixed together the soup mix, the oil (instead of margarine) and the water. I used 2 packets of No Name onion soup mix, which contains no animal ingredients.
- Then I added, in place of the beef in the filling, I made up 4 cups of reconstituted texturized vegetable protein (from Bulk Barn, it was about 2 cups dry boiling water) 1/4c soy sauce about twenty good shakes worcestershire (vegan worcestershire is available) 2 teaspoons garlic powder.
- After mixing in the other ingredients, I added the breadcrumbs and let it cool down in the fridge while the dough rested/rose a bit.