German Beef Dumpling Soup

4.63 from 8 votes

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

Prep Time1

Cook Time45

Total Time1 45

Course: Soup

Cuisine: German

Servings:

Calories: 359kcal

Author: Adina

Remove the marrow from the bones. You can do that by scratching inside the bone with a long thin knife (not your best knife) or object. Place the marrow in an airtight container and refrigerate it until needed (you can also freeze it).
Place the beef and all the bones in a large pot. Add the roughly chopped vegetables and all the spices. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.
Simmer: Turn down the heat and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.
Finish broth: 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. Adjust the taste of the broth with more salt if necessary.
Once cool enough to handle, chop the meat into small pieces and set it aside for later.

Mix the eggs, milk, salt, and nutmeg very well. Pour the mixture into a freezer bag, and knot the bag very tightly.
Simmer egg custard: Fill a wider pot with water. Bring to a boil, lower the heat, place the bag with the eggs in the pot 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: Take the bag out of the water and let the egg custard cool for a while. Remove the bag, slice the eggs thickly, then chop them into small squares or diamonds.
Add them to the soup during the last minutes of the cooking time.

Weigh the marrow. If you don't have quite 100 g/ 3.5 oz replace the missing quantity with some butter. You could only use butter if you don't have the marrow.
Melt marrow: 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.
Combine: Add the dry breadcrumbs, salt, pepper, a pinch of nutmeg, chopped parsley, and eggs and mix very well.
Tip: Depending on the size of the eggs and the breadcrumbs, you might need to adjust the texture by adding more breadcrumbs. Check the images in the blog post to see how the mixture should look like.
Form lots of small balls and cook them in the slightly simmering broth for about 10-15 or until they float in the soup. You will need to add the noodles and the cooked beef during these 10-15 minutes.

While you make and form the dumplings, reheat the broth.
Finely chop the fresh carrots and leek. Add to the soup and cook for about 5 minutes until they are half cooked.
Add the dumplings and simmer them for about 10 to 15 minutes or until they start to float in the soup.
Check the noodle's cooking time and add them to the soup while the dumplings are simmering. The noodles I use are tiny and only need 4 or 5 minutes, so I add them about 4 minutes before the dumplings are done.
Add the chopped cooked meat together with the noodles, so that it can be reheated as well.
Add the egg custard squares during the last 2 minutes of the cooking time, so that they can get hot again.
Finish the soup: Adjust the taste with salt, pepper, soy sauce, and red wine vinegar or balsamic to taste. I like a slightly sour and salty taste, so I add more than 2 tablespoons of vinegar and soy sauce. Start with a little and keep tasting until you get the desired taste.
Sprinkle with parsley and/or chives and serve.

You can use homemade beef broth or bone broth made in advance.
The marrow can be replaced with the same amount of unsalted butter.
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.
Alternatively, use Maggi sauce from a bottle, to taste.