Finnish cousine

These are some our traditional foods from Finland. Nowadays we eat these foods around the year (except mämmi and sima). But before we ate them in certain days like May Day.

Karelian pasty a.k.a Karjalanpiirakka has rye crust and rice porrige or potato filling. And the traditional way to eat that is with eggbutter. Karelian pasties are from Karelia but nowadays every finns eat that. We have annually Karelian pasty baking competition in the summer events for example in Rääkkylä.

Flatbread a.k.a Rieska is really thin bread, which is made barley flour, mushed potatoes, little bit salt and water. It can also have wheat flour. There are difference of the flatbread in several part of Finland. Somewhere it can be thicker than in Alavieska. For example, in Nivala it is chunkier and we think that the thin flatbread is better than thick.

Mead a.k.a Sima is weet,orange and it also can has little bit alcohol. It include water, sugar, lemon and raisins, which tell when the mead is ready to enjoy. Finns do that at home, because it’s cheaper and very easy. You can also buy it from shops.

Munkki is deep-fried sweet bun coated in sugar. It can be filled with jam.

We eat munkki and mead at May Day. And we have a parties!!!

Potato. In Finland we eat potatoes almost every day. It can be mashed potatoes, oven potatoes, potato wedges… All finns  eat potatoes. We seed potatoes because it`s more cheaper than buy in shops, but we can buy them around the year from shops. New potatoes are really delicious and we eat them with the butter and dill.

Crisp bread is hard, dry bread which is made from rye flours. We eat them at school with butter. But in home we can also use cheese with the crisp bread. And in Finland we have a myth, that in prison you can only eat crisp bread without butter and drink water.

Sautéd reindeer is well known traditional food from Lapland. It’s made from steak or the back of the reindeer. reindeer meat is dark and low-fat. It’s usually seasoned with salt and pepper. Sautéd reindeer is traditionally served with smashed potatoes and lingonberry jam.

Mämmi is traditional finnish easter treat. It’s made from rye flour, water, malt and seasoned with orange peel, then baked in the oven. It may look quite off-putting, but it tastes sweet. Some people serve it with cream and sugar.

Rye bread is something unique in Finland. Rye bread is sour bread primarily made of rye but there is usually also added wheat or sometimes potato. Traditional rye bread is big, round and thick, but there is also different kind of rye breads like rye loaf for example

© Aappo Jutila, Karoliina Hannula ja Mirjami Oja