Roulades Recipe

Author:
is a chef, food photographer, cookbook author and blogger.
Here he shares recipes, answers cooking questions and helps with cooking.

Here you can discover my roulades recipe.

The beef roulades are a popular stew from Germany.

We know braised roulades with bacon, mustard and cucumber as typical home cooking.

The dish is perfect for a family dinner on Sunday or when friends come to visit.

Popular side dishes for the roulade are mashed potatoes, jacket potatoes with herbs, glazed vegetables, Brussels sprouts and red cabbage

Below you will find a step by step guide to roulade stewing with many photos to cook yourself.

I wish you success, questions I answer over the comment function at the end of the page. 

1. Recipe Roulades

Here is my recipe for roulades, with many step by step photos.

I wish you every success!

The best side dishes for roulades are parsley potatoes, mashed potatoes and oven potatoes.

Beef Roulades

Cooked, photographed and written down by chef Thomas Sixt.

Servings 4
Calories 709
Total Time 130 Min.
Preparation Time 30 Min.
Cook Time 100 Min.

Simple guide to prepare German beef roulades with side dishes.

Rate Now!

4.99 from 1161 ratings

Roulades Recipe Image
Roulades Recipe Image © Thomas Sixt

Ingredients

Roulades

4 pc beef roulades from topside (have prepared by the butcher)
2 tbs Dijon mustard
1 pc onions (or shalotts)
2 pc gherkin
1 pc carrot (optional)
4 slices bacon (or ham in strips)
8 pinch Salt
8 pinch Pepper

Preparation and Sauce

1 tbs clarified butter
1 pc Soup vegetables
1 tbsp tomato puree
4 pinches Sweet paprika (optional)
500 ml veal stock
300 ml red wine
1 pc potato (I use to bind sauce)
10 g dark chocolate
1 tbs butter
1-2 tsp Dijon mustard (Optionally I use to season the sauce)
2 pinches brown can sugar

Potatoes and vegetables

4-6 pc big potatoes
4 pc carrots
40 g butter
Salt
Pepper
nutmeg
1/4 bunch Parsley

Instruction

Preparing and stewing beef roulades

Prepare the roulades, prepare all the ingredients.
Ingredients for the preparation of beef roulades.

Prepare ingredients

Let the butcher cut the beef roulade meat thinly from the topside.

Wash the meat slices and pat dry.

Prepare all the ingredients for the roulade.

Prepare roulade, meat from the beef topside on a kitchen board while tapping.
Prepare beef roulades. Lightly tap thin slices of the topside of the beef so that the roulade safely stews softly.

Meat pounding

Place the roulade meat between cling film and lightly tap (plate).

You can also gently tap the roulades directly with the Schnitzelklopfer.

Roulades fill step image.
Roulade filling: Spread with mustard, sprinkle with onion cubes, put on pickled gherkins and bacon.

Stuffing roulades

Brush the roulades with mustard and season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle onion cubes, place pickled gherkin, bacon and optional carrot on the meat.

Roll the stuffed roulade together and fix in place.
Roll the stuffed roulade together and fix in place.

Wrap roulades

Fold in the side parts of the roulades and roll the roulades together.

Tie the roulades with a string or fix them with toothpicks.

Preheat the oven to 160°C hot air.

Beef roulades frying in a pan.
Brown the roulades in a pan.

Fry roulades

Season the outside of the roulades with salt and pepper and brown them in a pan with clarified butter or sunflower oil.

Roulades of beef roasted in a roaster.
The fried roulades in the roaster.

Prepare roaster

Place the roulades in a roaster with a lid.

Fry the root vegetables in a frying pan, add the sauce for roulade sauce.
The fried vegetables for the roulade sauce in the pan.

Prepare sauce base

Das Gemüse klein schneiden und in die Pfanne geben.

Gemüse bei hoher Hitze anbraten.

Wenn das Gemüse Farbe genommen hat das Tomatenmark dazu geben.

Roasted vegetables with tomato paste in the pan.
Vegetable roast for beef roulade sauce. It is important to brown the tomato paste with the vegetables.

Deglaze

Roast the roasted vegetables with the tomato paste for another 5 minutes.

The roast may take on a light brown colour.

Now you can sprinkle some sweet paprika with veal stock and wine shortly before you deglaze.

Prepare beef roulades sauce: Step picture Prepare sauce.
sauce base for roulade sauce with veal stock and red wine.

Add broth

Deglaze the sauce mixture for the roulade sauce with the veal stock and the red wine and bring to the boil.

Roast roulades with sauce and vegetables in the roaster before stewing.
Roasted beef roulades with sauce and vegetables in the roaster.

Prepare braising

Pour the sauce with the vegetables to the roulades in the roaster.

Beef roulades fried in roaster with sauce poured on before braising with lid.
Roasted roulades in a roaster with sauce. Stewing the roulades in the oven with lid has proved its worth.

Braise roulades

Close the roaster with the lid and stew the roulades in the oven for 1.5-2 hours.

Stewed beef roulades photographed in the roaster. © Thomas Sixt Foodfotgraf
Braised roulades in a roaster with sauce.

Turn roulades

After one hour of cooking, turn the roulades once and continue stewing again, closed with a lid.

Roulades ready stewed on a board, now the sauce is boiled up, passed, assembled and you can soon get ready to serve.
Stewed roulades cut open with sauce as you pass.

Sauce complete

At the end of the cooking time, check the cooking degree of the roulades by piercing them with a thin meat fork.

The roulades can be pierced softly.

Remove the roulades from the sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil and thicken with finely grated raw potatoes.

Pass the roulade sauce through a fine sieve.

Bring the roulade sauce to the boil, season to taste with salt and pepper, assemble with butter and keep the roulades warm in the sauce in the oven.

Preparing side dishes

Side dishes for rouladen prepare step picture.
Prepare side dishes for roulade, suitable are mashed potatoes, parsley potatoes, glazed vegetables.

Finish vegetables

Prepare the side dishes: Boil the potatoes, peel and toss in the butter with the parsley, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Optionally cut carrots into thin slices and sauté with butter.

Add zucchini and caramelize the vegetables with sugar.

Season the vegetables with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Arrange roulades and side dishes

Sliced stewed roulades on a board
Roulades cut open.

Complete dish

Warm the plates to serve.

Take the roulades out of the oven and cut them diagonally in half, bring the sauce to the boil.

Insider tip:

Refine the sauce with a little dark chocolate and mix.

beef roulades sauce potatoes vegetables close-up
Braised beef roulades served with sauce, parsley potatoes and glazed vegetables. The stewed roulades are a highlight of German cuisine.

Serve

Arrange the roulades, add the vegetables and sauce and serve quickly.

Video

Notes on the sauce:

The dark chocolate gives the sauce a strong depth, alternatively you can add a little of cocoa to the sauce.

Veal stock makes this dish an absolute highlight, buy veal stock in a glass or prepare your own veal stock according to this recipe.

Commercially available gravy paste is a possible substitute for sauce preparation, but does not come close to the taste experience that I would like to convey with this recipe.

2. Nutritional Values

3. How to make the best Roulades?

In the classical preparation we know the beef roulades in Germany filled with mustard, onions, bacon and gherkin.

Here are the first tips for perfect roulades:

Let’s also have a look at Austria:

The Austrian roulade is also filled with carrot.

This adds colour to the cut and tastes excellent.

The carrot is also healthy … 🙂 or?

Sliced stewed roulades on a board
Roulades cut open.
beef roulades mustard sauce
Beef roulades from Austria with carrot filling and mustard sauce.

4. What is the best Meat for Beef Roulades?

For the good, homemade beef roulade, you buy meat from the butcher or butcher of your choice from the top shell of the beef.

The butcher usually cuts the thin slices of meat thinly from the whole top shell on the machine.

Place the meat slices on cling film, place another sheet of cling film on the meat and then plate the meat with a platen iron or the flat side of the schnitzel knocker.

You can also knock the roulade meat directly with the schnitzel knocker, this will break the meat structure.

Why knock at all? So that the roulade is softly placed on the plate later after stewing.

Prepare roulade, meat from the beef topside on a kitchen board while tapping.
Prepare beef roulades. Lightly tap thin slices of the topside of the beef so that the roulade safely stews softly.
Prepare beef roulades. Lightly tap thin slices of the topside of the beef so that the roulade safely stews softly.
Roulades fill step image.
Roulade filling: Spread with mustard, sprinkle with onion cubes, put on pickled gherkins and bacon.

5. How to properly braise roulades

My mother always braised the roulades in a pot with a lid on the stove – as usual…

As a cook I learnt… braising means: cooking in a closed vessel with heat from all sides.

You really braise in the oven.

First sauté the roulades, then pour on the sauce, bring to the boil, cover with lid and put into the oven.

I stew my roulades at 160°C and give the roulades a good 1.5-2 hours in the oven.

this is how braising works
This is how braising works

6. How long do Roulades in a Pressure Cooker take?

I’m not a fan of the pressure cooker, I admit that, but I still tried the roulade stewing in the pressure cooker.

You can prepare beef roulades in the pressure cooker in about 45 minutes.

Beef roulades are also successful in pressure cookers. That’s not my favourite method, but it’s a good idea if you want it to go fast.

7. More Recipes with Beef

Comments, Cooking Questions and Answers

4.99 from 1161 ratings

Below you can write to me directly.
Please don’t forget the star rating on the recipe, 5 stars means you liked it!

  • Hi Thomas, I cooked your recipe. The roulades turned out perfectly. My German grandmother would be proud of me. Thank you!

    Reply

    • Thank you for your nice feedback, I’m glad.

      Wish you continued success!

      Reply