Original Runza Sandwich
Not a burger, but the reason anyone goes to Runza: seasoned ground beef mixed with cabbage and onions, baked inside a rectangle of bread made in the store each morning. Soft, savoury and slightly sweet from the cabbage, it is closer to a meat pie than a sandwich. Eat one with crinkle-cut fries and a cup of chili, and add toppings only on a second visit.
The story
The runza is a Plains descendant of the Russian pirozhok. In the eighteenth century German farmers settled on the Volga at Catherine the Great’s invitation and turned the pastry into the bierock, a yeast bun stuffed with meat and cabbage. When Russia began conscripting them in the 1870s, many emigrated to the American Great Plains and brought it with them. Sally Everett, born Brening in Sutton, Nebraska, adapted her family’s recipe and is credited with the name, probably from the German krautrunz or the Low German runsa, “belly”, for its rounded shape. She started selling them in Lincoln in 1949.
What’s inside
- seasoned ground beef
- cabbage
- onions
- house-baked bread pocket
Make it at home
There is no copycat of the Original Runza Sandwich yet. Until there is, these recipes on the site come closest to it, judged by what goes into the bun.
- Shares beef
Quinoa Black Bean Burgers - Shares beef
Almost White Castle Hamburgers - Shares beef
Greek Hamburgers (Bifteki) - Shares beef
Air Fryer Burgers
Similar burgers at other chains
Built around the same things as the Original Runza Sandwich.- A&W Canada · beef
Uncle Burger - Big Boy · beef
Brawny Lad - Sonic Drive-In · beef
Jr. Burger - Milo’s Hamburgers · beef
Original Burger
More from Runza
About Runza
Sally Everett opened a runza stand with her brother Alex in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1949. The runza was her family’s version of the bierock, a yeast-dough pocket filled with seasoned ground beef, cabbage and onion that Volga German settlers brought to the Great Plains in the late nineteenth century. Her son Donald began expanding the business in 1966, franchising followed in 1979, and the Everett family still owns it.
About 85 restaurants, almost all of them in Nebraska, with a few in Iowa, Colorado and Kansas.
Not affiliated with Runza. Trademarks belong to their owners.