Nordic nosh: 5 foods that tell you all you need to know about Finns
A country’s food reveals much about its character. Finnish food is no different. Our culinary tastes reflect our history and how we feel about ourselves.
We can observe what is cooking everywhere from the deepest forests to the hippest streets.
1. A feast of fish and forest food
Finland has never ending forest and 188,000 lakes. With 78% of the land covered with green gold, it is one of the world’s most forested countries. Every fifth Finn belongs to a forest owning family. According to Finnish law and tradition the forest belongs to everyone, along with all its treasures.
Nearly 300,000 Finns have a hunting license. They most often point their rifles at moose, deer and bear.
These are considered delicacies. Anyone who knows how to cook the meat can create delicious plates of Finnish wilderness. Add tasty berries and mushrooms to the list for a complete Finnish forest menu. Fish is found in many dishes. If you visit a Finnish fish market, taste the creamy fish soup, cold smoked salmon and fried Baltic herring.
What this food says about Finns: You can take the Finn out of the forest but you cannot take the forest out of the Finn. In our hearts, we will always be forest people.
2. Rocking with Ruisleipä
Rye has been grown in Finland since the Iron Age. In the Middle Ages it took an important role in Finnish cuisine. It is suitable for the Finnish climate which has only three months of warm weather. It is the main ingredient in ruisleipä or rye bread.
Finns keep their rye bread unsweetened and simple. It contains only four ingredients: rye flour, sourdough, water and salt. In the past this bread was convenient due to its longevity. The hole in the middle of the flat loaves dates from times when bread was hung on a stick above the kitchen fireplace for long-term storage. If dried, it is almost immune to mould.
Rye is also the main ingredient in Karelian pasties and the Easter dessert pudding mämmi. Unless you are Finnish, this dessert can be tough to stomach.
What this food says about Finland: We are hardcore and adaptable because our challenging climate requires it. For much of the world bread is a fluffy pleasure. For us it is as hard as rock and lasts for months.
3. Sensational sauna smoked meat
Finns heat themselves in the sauna and their food too. This way of cooking relates to the historical need for preservation. It adds a salty Finnish touch to the meat. Using saunas for preparing meat remains part of the country’s farming culture.
Before heating the sauna, the meat is hung for a few days and then put in a salt bath for another few days. The result is salty and tender. In Ostrobothnia, the choice is usually lamb. Anything goes as long as the fat does not drip on the fire and risk burning the sauna down.
What this food says about Finns: We are people of extremes. We live in a place that gets very cold, so we love to hang out in a place that gets very hot.
4. Bloody food
Finns use blood in cooking. There is bread, pancakes and sausage coloured and flavoured with this ingredient. The mustamakkara or blood sausage originates from Tampere and is served with lingonberry jam. Some find it good while others may require vodka to consume it. When you live in an unforgiving country, you make sure nothing goes to waste.
What this food says about Finns: In our rural past food supply was insecure. We still make the most of what we have. Blood might not be for everyone, but if it is there, we use it.
I really hope that sausage tastes better than it looks.
It does. Lots and lots better. Actually there are many Finnish foods that look horrible and taste really fine. Just look up mämmi :)
Maybe it’s just my delicate English palette but I’d say that’s open to debate, Sami :)
SaucyC,It does taste good.I tried it when I was in Tampere.
It doesn’t taste better than it looks !
Blood sausage is a close relative of black pudding.
I have had bear pate and I confirm it’s damn fine and damn expensive!
I knew Finns love sauna and I heard they even used to give birth in them but had no idea they made food there. Wouldn’t that make the smell a bit well…sweaty meaty?
If it’s hung over the stove how would it be sweaty? Sauna itself doesn’t smell sweaty, if it’s an outside sauna it smells like wood smoke and possibly birch branches and soap so there is no way it would taste sweaty. It would get cooked by the heat rising from the stove and maybe steam. Some cook ring bologna on the sauna stove, wrapped in tinfoil, not sweaty either.
Have to wonder what lutfisk & memma say about us. We eat them while muttering “Well, it’s only once a year…”
Black sausage is acquired taste just like mämmi. Been a while since I had blood sausage ,actually it was in small silver dollar pancake form. Grew up with it being part of school lunch program. Taste to me is a bit like liver sausage. Mämmi tastes like a malted rye bread. You either love it or hate it.
Ive lived close to the capital my whole life. Im finnish, I was born here and Ive never in my life heard about the word Snägäri ?? like what? I guess it must be a finnish, finnish thing since Im a swedish speaking finn….but still O.O
I’m from Helsinki and the word ‘snägäri’ has been in my vocabularity for 40 years.
Snägäri is same as ”nakkikioski” (=sausage kiosk).
It’s a slang word, I believe based on the English word “snack”.
Excuse me! Minnesota has 1,000 lakes. Finland has 10,000! See food number 1 mistake.
I’ve not counted, but according to Wikipedia “There are 187,888 lakes in Finland” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lakes_of_Finland which is good news for us all :)
Actually, Finland has 186,000 lakes :)
Visiting our relatives in Finland was a wonderful smorgasboard! Reindeer was delicious! I did not eat the blood sausage! But mother’s husband actually made some when we were butchering pigs one year! Ya it is gross to watch! But all in all I loved Finland and would return in a heartbeat. Without Mother’s husband of course! He was born in Helsinki! But I think the Shah of Iran was in the woodpile! Lol!
I might ad I am 1/2 Finn and have lived with a clan for years! So proud they were of being Finn! I was always asked about my nationality and of course answered Finn! In the back of my mind I wondered? What about Mom’s nationality but in their world that was not questioned. As an adult I returned and had my geneology ran by the church in Helsinki. The one pictured in all their ads! Wonderful experience!
I live in Canada but all of my grand parents were from Finland. I can remember growing up in an all Finish community and the old finns eating blood pancakes and blood pudding. Also drinking hot blood when an animal was killed on the farm for mea……it used to freak us out…but this was their way……
Snägäri on nakkikioski.
C’mon you have to try North-Carlelian things like the carelian pies ( rice pies ) and egg-butter and bread that’s either filled with swedes and/or meat. >83
Solja,
Tassapa tietoa suomalaista ruuista.