German Beef Dumpling Soup

The German beef dumpling soup with bone marrow dumplings, vegetables, noodles, and egg custard is comforting and delicious.

This German beef dumpling soup or Rindfleischsuppe with egg custard must be the first traditional German food I had when coming to Germany; it is my mother-in-law's signature dish.

It is something we mostly have during the colder times of the year; those are the times when you don't mind a pot of bone broth simmering for hours and hours in the kitchen and when you feel like taking more time to prepare such extra things like bone marrow dumplings and egg custard squares.

And if you would like a vegetarian soup, try the Vegetarian Dumpling Soup (with Vegetables).

Recipe FAQ

Recipe ingredients

• For the beef broth:
  • Meat: One piece of beef boiling meat, about 300-400 g/ 10.5-14 oz
  • Vegetables: one thin leek, two medium carrots, one piece of celeriac, or 2-3 celery stalks.
  • Spices: bay leaves, allspice berries, juniper berries, and cloves.

• For the egg custard: You will need eggs, milk, salt, and a pinch of nutmeg

• For the marrow dumplings: Bone marrow from about 4-5 small bones, dry breadcrumbs, salt, ground black pepper, nutmeg, parsley, and eggs.

• For the German beef dumpling soup:
  • Beef broth cubes to help increase the flavor of the broth. Beef broth is cooked for a relatively short period of time, not enough to develop the rich deep flavor of a beef bone broth.
  • If you are using beef bone broth or shop-bought broth (which already contains lots of flavor enhancers), you can skip the broth cubes.
  • Vegetables: One medium leek and carrots. Also, some fresh parsley or chives to garnish the German beef soup.
  • One small handful of tiny-shaped noodles.
  • Spices: Red wine vinegar or balsamic vinegar, soy sauce. Alternatively, use Maggi from a bottle.

Step-by-step instructions

The recipe for the beef dumpling soup is not difficult, but there are a few very different steps involved, so it requires a bit of time and organization.

How to make beef broth?

• Remove the marrow from the bones: Before starting to make the broth with the marrow bones, remember to remove the bone marrow before cooking the bones, it must be raw and not cooked. Scratch out the marrow, about 100 g/ 3.5 oz of it, and use that to make the dumplings for the soup. Keep it refrigerated in a small airtight container until ready to use.

• Simmer: Place the boiling meat and all the (empty) bones in a large pot. Add vegetables, cover with cold water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat immediately, remove the scum with a slotted spoon, and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.

• Finish: Remove the meat from the pot and set it aside. Strain the broth into a clean pot and discard the bones and the cooked vegetables. Once cool enough to handle, chop the meat into small pieces and set it aside for later.

How to make egg custard?

• You can make the egg custard for the beef dumpling soup in advance and keep it refrigerated in an airtight container. Only add it to the beef dumpling soup at the end of the cooking process.

• Mix the eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg very well. Pour the mixture into a freezer bag and knot the bag very tightly (1).

• Cook: Fill a wider pot with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, place the bag with the eggs in the pot (2) and simmer gently for about 15-20 minutes, turning the bag a few times in between (use tongs), until the eggs are completely set.

• Chop: Remove, let cool for a while. Cut the bag, take out the egg custard (3), slice the eggs thickly, then chop them into small squares or diamonds (4). Add to the soup during the last minutes of the cooking time.

How to make marrow dumplings?

• Weigh the marrow (5). If you don't have quite 100 g/ 3.5 oz replace the missing quantity with butter. You could only use butter if you don't have the marrow.

• Melt: Place the marrow in a small, preferably nonstick saucepan and heat gently, stirring often, until the marrow is melted. Sieve the liquid through a fine-meshed sieve into a medium bowl (6).

• Combine: Add the dry breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, chopped parsley (7), and eggs, and mix very well together (8).

• Form lots of small balls (9) and cook them in the slightly simmering broth for about 10-15 minutes or until they start to float on top of the German beef soup.

How to make the German beef dumpling soup?

• Taste the broth, if it’s not flavorful enough, heat it well and add the beef broth cubes, stir well to help them dissolve. Heat the broth before adding the rest of the ingredients.

• Add vegetables: Chop the leeks and the carrots and cook them in the beef broth until very slightly softer, about 5 minutes.

• Add dumplings, noodles, and cooked meat: Add the beef dumplings and simmer them for 10-15 minutes or until they float in the pot. While the dumplings are simmering, add the noodles as well. Check the noodle's cooking time and add them to the soup on time. Add the chopped cooked beef when you add the noodles.

• Add the egg custard squares to the German beef soup during the last 2 minutes of the cooking time, so that they can get hot again.

• Adjust the taste of the beef dumpling soup with salt, pepper, soy sauce, and vinegar. Start with a little and keep tasting until you get the desired taste. Alternatively, use Maggi sauce from a bottle (to taste). Sprinkle with parsley and/or chives and serve.

Expert tips

Flavor:

• Beef broth doesn't have the intense flavor of beef bone broth, which is cooked for a whole day.
• To increase the flavor, I recommend adding a few good quality, low-sodium beef broth cubes. Use them to taste and adjust the taste with salt accordingly.

Cloudy broth: It tastes just as good as clear broth, so don’t stress too much if it happens.

What might help against it?

• Start making the beef broth with cold water.
• Don’t let the broth boil, it should only very gently simmer.
• Skim off the scum.

Make ahead:

• You can prepare the broth one day ahead. Keep it refrigerated (I use large jars for this purpose). You can remove the fat that sets on top of the liquid before reheating the broth.
• If you want to make the broth several days in advance, it is preferable to freeze the bone marrow in a small container until ready to use (and up to 3 months).
• You can also make the egg custard one day ahead. Leave it in the bag, place the bag in a container and refrigerate the custard.

• You can prepare the German beef soup in advance and keep it refrigerated. However, it is preferable to add the noodles when reheating the soup, especially if you serve it to guests. When the noodles stay in the soup overnight, they will absorb a lot of liquid and will become softer. The soup will also become thicker.
• That’s not a bad thing when happening to leftovers, but I prefer to have a perfect beef dumpling soup the first time we serve it and a thicker one the next day.

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