Between the Bread

What began as a pocketful of beef and cabbage eventually led to the Reuben we know and love today. Similar to the Cornish pasties popular in Michigan by way of Cornwall, the bierock is a sort of German calzone made from yeasty dough stuffed with beef, cabbage, and onions.

This portable sandwich precursor arrived in the Great Plains thanks to Germans who migrated from Russia to the Nebraska and Kansas farmland. Cabbage is a classic cold weather crop, and bierocks can warm you right up. The name bierock is probably related to the Russian pirozhki, another type of meat-stuffed dough dish. Perhaps not coincidentally, one of the several origin stories about the Reuben sandwich (more on that later) starts in Nebraska.

Baked in a half-moon or bun shape, bierocks are also called cabbage burgers, something my house boy remembers from growing up in Wyoming and is always threatening to make. Other fans refer to it as a runza, which inspired an entire chain of "ovenstuff'd sandwiches" in Nebraska. These oblong baked sammies look suspiciously similar to the cheesesteak pretzels that debuted last year.

Have you ever been to Runza or eaten a cabbage burger or bierock?

Source: Fork Fingers Chopsticks

Let's just hope no one decides to add cream cheese. Rolling two of Philadelphia's favorite foods in one handheld bundle, the Philly Pretzel Factory introduces the cheesesteak pretzel. As the name suggests, it's a soft pretzel stuffed with cheesesteak filling. All the flavor of a giant cheesesteak with none of the mess. Said one diner, "I'm not going to be wearing this all day."

Though the invention is novel, its inspiration can be found it some of the country's oldest sandwich precursors. Before sandwiches hit it big in the US, laborers carried early versions that were essentially warm meat filling encased in dough.

In Michigan's Upper Peninsula, miners lunched on Cornish pasties, which often had savory fillnig on one end and sweet dessert at the other. The similar bierock fed farm hands in Nebraska, while the pepperoni roll in West Virginia gained popularity with mine workers and is now sold in convenience stores.

So perhaps it was only a matter of time before someone figured out how to contain the mess of a cheesesteak in the form of these old-school convenience foods. Though I'll admit, the pretzel really takes it to the next level.