Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

Recipe Search

ReiRei or Ruehrei - Gluten Free or Not

(just a note on the spelling of this dish ..  ReiRei is the closest to how I have always said it -- the correct spelling would be Ruehrei - German for "stir egg" - the 'e' indicating that the 'u' has an 'umlaut') 

ReiRei is a comfort food that goes back to my own childhood.  It is quick, easy and nutritious and I remember my Mom and my Grandmother making it often

I liked to eat it at my Grandmother's house because she would serve it to me with a little smirk saying, "I know at home you aren't allowed to eat it with sugar but at my house you can eat it with sugar!"
Of course I loved it with sugar and it just proved that things are always better at Grandma's house !!

Skipping down a couple of generation to my own grandgirls,  ReiRei very quickly became the dish of choice whenever my grandgirls would come over.
"Nanna, can you make ReiRei?"  was their repetitive request and I ,of course, was happy to make it for them .. and yes, they were allowed to eat it with sugar at my house!

I thought ReiRei was so easy to make every one knew how to make it... but sometimes the seemingly simple things are not so simple if you have never seen them done.
My girls would say to me, "Nanna, I don't want to hurt Grandma's feelings but you need to teach her how to make ReiRei."

So, in case someone else has never made it ,  here are the step by step instructions.
It really is a quick one dish meal that kids love.  ( I still like it too)  
And my grandgirls are happy that they can now have it gluten-free !

ReiRei 

  • 1/2 cup reg wheat flour OR gluten -free flour mix (my favourite mix - equal amounts of brown rice flour/millet flour/white bean flour/white corn flour/tapioca starch)
  • 1/2 tsp. salt 
  • 1/4 tsp xanthan gum (if using gluten free flour) 
  • 3 eggs 
  • 1/2 cup whole milk 
  • 1 tbsp butter 
1.  Whisk eggs and milk, add the flour and whisk until smooth (do not use blender - too much mixing makes the Rei Rei 'stick together'.) 



2. Melt butter in hot skillet.  Then pour batter into skillet. (I love my cast iron) 


3. When batter begins to cook on the bottom and turn brown, turn the bottom over to the top and let the top liquid settle on the bottom.  Turn again when it turns brown.  Watch carefully - it doesn't take very long to cook.


4. Using egg turner (can use knife to help) chop and cut the 'pancake'  into small pieces,  stirring and cutting.



5. Keep stirring until the pieces are all nicely browned.


 Enjoy ! with or without sugar (depending on whose house you are at!)

26 comments:

  1. This is a staple at my house,although my recipe is slightly different.My granddaughter loves it with syrup,her Daddy and I eat it with homemade ketchup.It's also very tasty eaten together with watermelon.
    FYI,I use 2 cups flour,6 eggs,1 tsp. baking powder,a little salt and milk to make a thin batter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I ate these as a child, with syrup. But as an adult I can't eat any grains. So recently I discovered a super easy grain-free crepe recipe that can easily double as a Rei Rei recipe, yay!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I wonder if this came from ruher ei? German for scrambled eggs. Always interesting to find something old that is new to me. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes.. I'm sure the 'name' came from the German for 'stirred eggs' ....

      Delete
    2. The German spelling would be Ruehrei and literally translated is stirred or scrambled eggs.
      Our grandchildren love it with a sprinkle of sugar and I think it may be healthier than ketchup. =)
      There is also a recipe in the first MGCC cookbook. Julie, your photos tell the recipe nicely.

      Delete
  4. I've never heard of this!!!!! Is it basically like a German pancake, just cut into smaller pieces? Very interesting!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is similar ... except there are more eggs ... and while German pancakes are thin (crepes) this is cooked in a thicker layer before it is cut into pieces.

      Delete
  5. Sometimes we forget how quick, tasty and convenient these "golden oldies" were. I'll be making this today and enjoying it with a dollop of sour cream. Thanks for posting!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have never heard of this and I'm surprised as, although I'm not German, I lived for many years close to the Amana Colonies in Iowa and we used to go out to eat there and it was all German food. We especially loved their breakfasts. This sounds wonderful and a great quick supper even like on Sunday evenings if you have your big meal at noon. Thank you so much. I can't wait to try it and I'll be sending it to my daughter too as I bet the grand boys would love it and it would be a quick meal for her to fix after teaching all day.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I grew up with this.... we ate it with onions in vinegar and hot peppers ! Yum!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A tip......we used a soup can that had both ends cut off to chop our Rei Ei....using a pot holder, quick way to chop everything quickly

      Delete
  8. This is new to me - I love recipes like this, reminding us of our grandmother's recipes. I must try this!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Evidently most of MGCC readers aren't of the same heritage as you girls, this sounds like its new to all of us. This makes me curious where your readers hail from . This sounds like pure comfort food.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Many of our recipes have the Ukrainian/Russian influence, where our parents or grandparents were born.
      There are branches of Mennonites that came to the US from Europe who never went through Russia, allowing for differences.
      Having said that, we will still have similarities in the recipes that originate in Europe. I don't know where this recipe originated, because it does have a German name . . . unless it was translated,
      I hope that answers your question.

      Delete
  10. Have never heard of anything like this. Want to try it with my grandchildren! I did a google search for Rei Rei and did not come up with anything at all to explain what those words mean or even an alternate recipe. Glad I read the comments now as it explains it a little more. Strange that some eat with sugar, or ketchup, or syrup or even onions in vinegar and hot peppers! WOW!

    ReplyDelete
  11. In investigating a little more I found a Google reference to a blog post on this site of June 18, 2008 for Ruhrei and it is very similar to this recipe. Could you explain the difference in the 2 recipes? It's also called Mennonite Scrambled Eggs and described as something between an omelet and a pancake. I think it was from "Judy."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Carol.. yes I know Judy posted a recipe for Ruhrei .. which is a better spelling than Rei Rei .. The difference in our recipes is the amount of flour/milk ratio to the eggs. You know how handed down unwritten recipes are - each family has their own twist on it.

      Delete
  12. Loved your commentary as well as all the comments! I want to print it all out for my cookbook of favorites if I can figure out how to print without pictures. My Mom's version of Ruhrei was to fry lightly whatever leftover potatoes she had (not mashed) and/or cubes of bread (I preferred it without bread, but Pop liked the bread, so it got bread!). She poured the beaten-with-a-fork eggs and saute'd until "right". This was often a Saturday night supper. My husband and I eat evening meals in the dining room of our retirement community, so this is going to be our noon Meal of Memories soon!

    ReplyDelete
  13. I made this for breakfast. It was delicious comfort food. Thanks got the great recipe!

    ReplyDelete
  14. So glad this recipe is now 'documented' on your site!! I love ruehrei - I grew up eating this - mom making it in her cast iron frying pan, too! We always generously sprinkled with white sugar, and I usually piled a little heap of sugar on the side to dip into :).
    Thanks for adding the recipe!!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Have never heard of anything like this . thank
    Công Ty Ngôi Nhà xinh : mau thiet ke biet thu phap co | lau dai | dinh thu

    ReplyDelete
  16. We ate it with Rogers Golden Syrup. My most memorable memory was when my aunt and uncle loaded the car in 1956 with my cousin, our Grandmother, another lady and myself in southeastern MB for a weekend at the Lake of the Woods in the Kenora area. Lunch time arrived, we stopped at the side of the highway (now Trans Canada) climbed up to the top of a rock cut and there she cooked Ruhrei over a camp stove.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I love hearing about your memories ... thank you for sharing them !!

      Delete
  17. My Austrian Mom would make the same thing for us except she called it Kaiserschmarren. She sometimes added raisins to the batter for those of us that like them. I now make them for my grandchildren too.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Best Rei recipe I have tried. My husband thanks you.

    ReplyDelete
  19. If added a bit of Bakingpowder (or do you call it baking soda, the powder wich grants the cake will encrease in the oven) the batter will become more fluffy. Then it would be the same dish as we germans and austrians know as "Kaiserschmarrn". A dish which was invented for the austrian Kaiser. We usually eat it with powdersugar, raisins plus/or vanilla sauce. I've never heard of it eaten with something salty or spicy....... In opposite of "Rührei/Ruehrei" which is exactely the same as scrambled eggs, eaten with salt and pepper.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.