Category: Finland

FOOD AND CULTURE IN FINLAND

Six hundred years of Swedish rule and a hundred years of Russian domination have left their stamp on the language and food customs of Finland but the character of the people remains unique.

The difficulty in understanding Finns becomes apparent when descriptions vary from “honest yet stubborn” to “slow and very quiet.” Of course there are regional and individual differences, but certain general characteristics are evident. Finns are noted for their strength and athletic prowess, and Finn names will be found in the lists of pioneers clearing sites and building towns and highways in the United States. In Canada the Finns are famed for their work on the Canadian Pacific Railway and the Welland Canal. Their apparent slowness may be attributed to their meditative and philosophical natures, and their noted long periods of silence readily explained by saying, “There is nothing to talk about.” Most of all, Finns possess a quality that can best be described by their own word: sisu, which is courage, stamina, and stubbornness rolled into one package. Others call it more simply “guts.”

It must have been sisu that gave 420,000 Karelian Finns the endurance to move from their homes en masse during the Russian invasion of their beloved province of Karelia during World War II. It must have been sisu that caused the rest of the Finn population to open their homes to these refugees, to feed and clothe them and donate their own money and precious possessions to help the Karelians eventually build new homes. And surely it is sisu that provides the Finn with the kind of moral and spiritual sustenance to live in a rugged country visited by summer only two months of the year.

The Finns call their country Suomi, literally “marshland.” Laced with more than 60,000 lakes, less than 8 percent of the land is fertile. This small arable portion consists mainly of the coastal regions. The rest of the land is largely stony or covered with forests. Crops are therefore limited. Principle ones are those that form staple foods: potatoes and a fine variety of grains including rye, oats, barley, and wheat. Flax is also an important crop and rural women are famed for their hand looms that produce rugs, cloths, mats, curtains, and clothing from the linen threads.

The exact ethnic origin of the Finns is obscure but they are believed to be of Mongolian descent. Their height and fair skin, however, makes them appear to be closer to the Teutons.

Although 98 percent of Finns now speak Finnish, it was the publication of Finland’s epic Kalevala in 1836 that led to the establishment of Finnish as the official language. Finns learn Swedish and Finnish at school and many also learn German, English, or Russian. Estonians and the Hungarian Magyars are the only other peoples who speak languages from the Finno-Ugric root, but only the Finns were part of the free world while the others were under Communist domination. Perhaps this too has something to do with sisu.

It is said that there are three things for which the Finn will be most homesick: the sour rye bread, the sauna, and the luminous summer nights when the sun forgets to set. Ruisleip – the sour rye bread baked flat and crisply hard with a hole in the center (western Finland) or thick, round, and crusty (eastern Finland) – is the staple of every meal.

The sauna is the eagerly anticipated Saturday night relaxation of Finn families and is much enjoyed by many others who have come to appreciate the pleasure of this warm steamy ritual.

Both ruisleipa and the sauna may be duplicated wherever Finns live, but the strangely mystical light of summer nights, when the sun does not set below the horizon, can only be appreciated in Finland and cherished in the memories of those who have witnessed it.

FOODS FROM FINLAND

DAIRY PRODUCTS
Much milk is consumed as a fresh whole beverage, as clabbered milk, called viili piima, or fresh butter-milk. Finland is famed for its great variety of quality cheeses: Aura, Emmenthal, Kesti, Kreivi, Tilsitter. There are also many local fresh-milk cheeses similar to pot cheese or cottage cheese and called simply “breakfast cheese.” Both fresh rich cream and sour cream are used in many dishes.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Because of the short growing season, fresh local fruits (mostly berries) and seasonal vegetables are greatly enjoyed. Preserves of berries and dried fruits (lightly sweetened or even quite tart) are often served with meats. Local fruits include blueberries, raspberries, cloudberries, lingonberries, cranberries, strawberries, and gooseberries, while citrus fruits are imported. Apples, rhubarb, and rosehips as well as dried fruits are also used. Fruits are eaten fresh, atop cereals, or as fillings in pastries and sometimes cakes. They are also served as dessert in the form of tart fruit soups, thickened puddings, whips, custards, and snows (with whipped egg whites). Fine liqueurs are made from some of the berries.

The staple vegetables are potatoes and cauliflower. Cucumbers, onions, beets, carrots, and radishes are used but not in any quantity and there is some resistance to increasing the consumption of vegetables. Salads of fresh vegetables are almost unknown. Many types of wild mushrooms are used both fresh and preserved in salt brine to be served during winter. Most vegetables are consumed as pickles, while potatoes and cauliflower are eaten in long-cooked (sometimes four to five hours) casseroles.

MEATS AND ALTERNATES
All parts of beef, pork, veal, and lamb are used: roasts, stews, jellied meat loaves, sausages, soups (“slaughter soup” is made from offal and blood). Bottled animal blood is sold as an ingredient for other dishes. Chickens are not plentiful. The Laplanders’ domesticated reindeer is considered a great delicacy, especially reindeer tongue. Occasionally game birds, bear meat, and elk are consumed.
Although herring is the staple fish, other fish used include sprats, sardines, whitefish, bream, flounder, pike, and salmon. Freshwater fish from local rivers and lakes are most common. Rapuja are the tiny freshwater crayfish served in midsummer, while muikko are the tiny lakefish eaten whole.

Eggs are consumed mostly as an ingredient in other dishes, bakery, and desserts. But munavoi is a smooth spread of mashed hard-cooked eggs with butter. Legumes, other than the dried peas for soup, are not used.

BREADS AND GRAINS
Wholegrain bread is a part of every meal: slightly sour and filling. Porridges and gruels made from various grains are often the main dish at lunch and sometimes are eaten as desserts in smaller servings with berries added. Plain tasty yeast breads and crisp plain cookies are always served with coffee. Rye, barley, oats, and wheat are used singly or in combination for the many grain breads and dishes.

FATS
Much fat is consumed in the form of whole milk, butter, cheeses, cream, and sour cream. Butter is the main cooking fat although salt pork and bacon fat are also used.

SWEETS AND SNACKS
The Finns are not great sweet-eaters, preferring viili piima (clabbered milk), kiisseli (fruit soups), or fresh berries in season as a dessert. Between-meal snacks will usually be coffee and a sandwich or a variety of plain crisp cookies or yeast breads, pound cakes, or other un-iced baked goods. Really rich and elaborate desserts are seldom served except on special occasions or for guests. Even the many types of berry preserves enjoyed with meats are only slightly sweetened.

SEASONINGS
Finns prefer natural flavors but like them on the robust side. From the sour rye bread and soured-milk dishes to the tart pickles and fruit desserts, the Finn preference is not for sweet flavors. Seasonings include dill, onion, garlic, juniper berries, and pine needles, which may be rubbed on game or fowl. Because smoked meats and smoked fish are so popular, smoke must be considered a flavoring as well as the abundantly used fresh milk and cream.

BEVERAGES
Coffee is the national beverage, but milk, buttermilk, and clabbered milk are popular. There are a variety of homemade fermented beverages, especially kalja, which is similar to beer but is non-alcoholic and not sweet. Vodka is called Ryyppy and is served icy cold. Finland is reputed to be the largest importer of fine cognac from France. Tea and herbal teas are occasional beverages, but the Finns enjoy their tea brewed strong.

DOMESTIC LIFE AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS IN FINLAND
Because of the country’s many rivers and streams, electrical power is used all over Finland, even in country barns. But wood and coal continue to be the common fuel for heating and cooking. Ruisleipa is still baked in brick oven – several times a week in eastern Finland, where the softer loaf is preferred, but sometimes only twice a year in western Finland, where the thin hard bread is preferred. The latter version is punched with a hole then hung on long poles to dry. It can be stored for months.

The most important room in the country house is the tupa. It is a combination living room and kitchen, typically with scrubbed wooden floors, wooden furniture and hand woven mats, table linen, and curtains. The important and often huge brick oven for baking bread is built into one wall of the house and the bread is placed inside and removed with a large wooden paddle.

Preferring fresh fruits and vegetables, urban home-makers shop frequently, but everyone makes preserves of berries and pickles of vegetables such as beets and cucumbers. All Finns have a strong preference for simplicity in their foods, enjoying the natural taste of wild berries and mushrooms, while fish and meats are frequently flavored only with salt or smoke. Although the sauna is primarily a bathhouse, legs of lamb and sides of bacon and ham are often smoke-cured there; quick post-sauna snacks of sausages are often grilled over a small fire and enjoyed there with Kalja, the light Finn beer.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS
Religious freedom prevails in Finland today. The Evangelical Lutheran Church claims a membership of 95 percent of the Finnish population while only 2 percent belong to the Greek Orthodox Church.
Christmas, Easter, and May Day are the main festivals but the Finns are also much affected in their mood and social life by the seasons. The long dark days of winter, relieved only by visitors or special family occasions, seem to cause a cloud of solemn quiet to fall over daily life. Even alcohol consumption increases dramatically in an effort to dispel the national winter depression.

The joyousness of the first of May (May Day) is celebrated with singing and dancing and a great sense of communal relief that the end of winter is in sight. Sima, the tangy fermented lemon drink, is served everywhere to happy visitors and even on the street together with the crispy-fried tippaleipa.

Midsummer Day, though less exuberant than May Day, is celebrated with special menus featuring fresh cheeses. Happy parties with crayfish feasts and sleepless nights during late spring and summer celebrate “the time of the long days” or Pithia Paivia when the lingering mysterious Northern Lights add their special quality to the festivities.

Christmas is celebrated on December 24 with church services and a festive meal of well-cooked vegetable casseroles, lutefisk or lipeakala (the specially prepared salt cod dish), baked ham, garnished with dried fruits, and a creamy rice pudding. Later in the evening cookies and coffee are enjoyed while Santa Claus gives gifts to the children.

At Easter, a buffet is centered around a display of home-baked yeast breads. The most famed of these is the paasiaisleipa, of Karelian origin. Redolent with cardamom and chewy with nuts and candied fruits, it is baked in a high round tin that bears a striking resemblance to the Russian kulitch. From the rich spring butter and creams come the special cheeses that are served on the Easter buffet as well. One of the oldest traditional Easter dishes is served either as a pudding or a beverage depending on the area. Easter mammi is prepared from a mixture of molasses, water and rye flour flavored with raisins and orange peel, and the pudding version is traditionally baked in baskets.

MEALS AND CUSTOMS IN FINLAND
Finns wake up to a morning coffee, pulla (braided yeast bread), or open-face sandwiches of cheese and meats. Many Finns prefer coffee only and save their appetites for a lunch of puuroa (cooked cereal) or, in the country, a heartier meal of meat or fish with potatoes and gravy, bread and butter, and cheese. Not long after the noon meal comes a break when coffee, breads, and cookies or sometimes open-face sandwiches are served. The evening meal is likely to be a baked casserole of meat and cereal, or potatoes, bread and butter, all served with fruit preserves, beets, and cucumbers. Later in the evening coffee will again be accompanied by yeast breads and cookies.

Voileipapoyta is the name given to the traditional Finn “sandwich table.” In Sweden this is called smorgasbord; in Denmark it is called smorbrod; and in Norway it is known as koltbord. The basis of them all is bread and butter and upon this is built the rest of the meal – usually lunch, but occasionally a simplified version serves as breakfast. The Finn sandwich table is similar but differs with the inclusion of more freshwater fish dishes which abound in Finland, and small, hot, stuffed pastries. The ritual of the sandwich table requires that the smoked and salted fish (usually herring dishes) are eaten first, then a fresh plate taken for other fish dishes and cold roasted, smoked, or cured meats and jellied meat loaves. Still another fresh plate is taken for the variety of hot dishes. Fresh fruit or a compote of fruits with cheeses form the dessert. Coffee is served later, sometimes accompanied by simple yeast cakes and cookies.

The other Finn standby is the “coffee table,” the favorite break of the day, anytime in the afternoon or evening, and the popular way to entertain guests. Although usually just a simple serving of yeast cake (pulla) and cookies with excellent coffee, it can be more elaborated for special occasions or special guests. In the latter case, the fare will likely include pulla glazed with egg and crusted with almonds and sugar, un-iced poundcake, several types of cookies, and a layered filled cake. Fine china coffee cups and a bread-and-butter plate will be placed before each guest and it will be expected that not only many cups of coffee, but also a generous helping of each of the cakes and breads, will also be consumed. Not to have tasted each of the baked goods (together with as many cups of coffee as needed) would be considered an insult. And while the plain cakes and cookies alternate with the cups of coffee, somehow room must be saved to enjoy a generous helping of the rich layered cake as the finale!

The roles of mother and father in Finn life are well defined. The rural woman considers not only the housecleaning and weekly baking as part of her work, but also the daily meal preparation and barn chores as part of her share, while the men do the heavy work in fields and forests. Urban women also accept a heavy workload of daily meals, weekly (usually Saturday) housecleaning, baking, as well as shopping. Most city people live in apartments.

FOODS COMMONLY USED

Breads and cooked grains form a part of almost every Finn meal and are often accompanied with herring, potatoes, or dairy products. Milk and cheeses are used generously. Because of the short growing season, fruits and vegetables are prized especially in season and accompany meats and fish in the form of preserves, pickles, and stewed dried fruits during winter. Meats and fish are used frugally, with nothing wasted. The staple fish is herring, prepared in many ways and used as appetizer or main dish. The Finns do not consume much concentrated sweets, preferring snacks of sandwiches or very plain cakes and cookies. Coffee is the national beverage, but beer, vodka, cognac, and strong tea have their place as well.

Daily Meals and Sauna Ritual in Finland

THE SAUNA RITUAL All Finn women follow housekeeping routines with almost religious fervor, but the bustle of Saturday’s activities is rewarded and soothed with the relaxation of the Saturday night sauna. The ritual of the sauna occupies such a central place in the lives of Finns that often, as in pioneer times, it is either the first building built or the first item Finns seek out when they emigrate.

The sauna is a small house built of wood inside and out and often located near a lake or a backyard pool. One enters into a small dressing room and from there into the main room where the bathers rest or sit on sturdy wooden shelves. Heat is supplied by a small stove with hot rocks. From time to time water is splashed on the heated rocks to add steamy moisture to the air, and the bathers beat themselves (and others) lightly with a bunch of twigs called vihta. Bathers also douse themselves with cool water as a refresher. A soap-and-water scrub is followed by a shower or a leap into a lake or pool. Some hardy Finns have been known to run outdoors and roll in the snow.

But the sauna is more than a bathhouse. Because of its scrupulous cleanliness, the sauna has often been the scene of a birth. Because of its relaxed atmosphere, it has also been the scene of many business discussions and even sauna parties. Also sauna-cured and smoked meats are common. A snack always follows the sauna ritual: sausages are grilled over an open fire or snacks of salty fish with rye bread and butter may be washed down with homemade Kalja.

THE DAILY MEALS

The daily menus differ slightly between rural and urban dwellers. Commonly, rural Finns awaken early to coffee and pulla. This is followed between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. with a substantial breakfast of potatoes, meat, and gravy (or fish) then rye bread and butter and a dessert of porridge. A rest period after this meal is followed by a “coffee table” and then all return to their work. In the country, the evening meal is served in the late afternoon (usually after the cows are milked) and is similar in content to breakfast. Later in the evening the rural Finn relaxes and completes the day with yet another “coffee table.” Generally, the rural meal pattern consists of two hearty meals interspersed with coffee and plain yeast breads and cookies.

Just as rural meal pattern follows the routine of daily labor, so too the urban meal pattern adapts itself to working hours. It is not practical for city people to consume only two meals and to eat them at the odd hours popular in the country. Although breakfast for most is still little more than coffee and pulla, men often have one or two open-face sandwiches of sliced cheeses and meats or fish. The city lunch depends on whether it is being eaten at home or in a restaurant. A home lunch will be little more than a bowl of puuroa (cooked cereal) and milk or buttermilk; while lunch eaten out will almost surely be the voileipapoyta: an array of fish and sliced meats, small hot dishes and then fruits and cheeses, all served with sliced dark breads. Often milk is the noon beverage, but men may take mild beers or Kalja.

The city dinner will be eaten when the men come home from work so that the family can dine together. If this is to be a late meal, the family may enjoy a late afternoon “coffee table” to appease hunger. Dinner will likely be a slow-baked casserole with potatoes and served with pickles, followed by a porridge or fruit dish for dessert. Coffee and breads will be enjoyed still later in the evening as a snack before bed.

GLOSSARY OF FOODS AND FOOD TERMS IN FINLAND

Aamiainen: breakfast.

Besimarja: brambleberry liqueur.

Easter Mammi: a very old traditional Easter dish that is a baked pudding or a beverage depending on where it is served. Made from water and rye flour, molasses, orange peel, and raisins. The pudding version is traditionally baked and served in baskets.

Jaloviina: Finn brandy.

Kaalilaatikko: a supper casserole of shredded veal, cabbage, and whortleberries baked in layers.

Kalakukko: a dish of Karelian origin consisting of meat and fish (usually pork and herring or Muikko) baked inside a bread-dough crust for several hours. The resulting brown mixture is so well cooked that even the fish bones are indiscernible.

Kalja: mild non-alcoholic brew drunk like beer and prepared frequently in Finn homes.

Karjalan Piirakat: Karelian version of the filled noodle pastries or small filled yeast pastries known in Russia as Piroshki. The Finn version is filled with rice, potato, cheese, or meat, and the crust is made from rye flour.

Keitetty Muna: boiled egg.

Kesakeitto: a vegetable soup made with young sweet spring vegetables cooked together and finished with the addition of milk. A Finn spring favorite.

Lakka: Finn cloudberry liqueur.

Lanttulaatikko: a baked turnip casserole.

Lipeakala: Finn name for the Swedish Lutefisk, the dried salt cod given special preparation for Christmas Eve dinner. The cod is soaked in water for several days before being given a one day soaking in a lye-and-ashes solution. This is followed by seven more days of soaking in fresh water before the fish is finally poached and served with a white sauce.

Lounas: lunch.

Maksalaatikko: a slow-baked casserole of liver and rice.

Muikko: tiny freshwater fish that are eaten whole.

Mustaa Kahvia: black coffee.

Pahkinakakku: nut cake.

Paistetut Sienet: a dish of fried wild mushrooms.

Paivallinen: supper.

Pannukakku: the baked Finn pancake made from eggs, milk, and flour similar to the batter and puffed crisp appearance of the English Yorkshire pudding.

Piimaa: buttermilk.

Poronkieli: reindeer tongue.

Poronliha: smoked reindeer meat.

Pulla: such a favorite, that there is seldom a Finn home without it. Scented with cardamom, this moist yeast dough is shaped into a braid and then thickly sliced after baking. Served with breakfast coffee or as part of a “coffee table.” Leftover slices are oven-dried and eaten as rusks, dipped into coffee. These latter may be called Korppua. Sometimes sweetened with raisins.

Punajuuri Salaattia: cooked beet salad.

Puuroa: a bowl of cooked cereal such as rice, farina, or oats, served with milk. Finn favorite for lunch or dessert.

Rapuja or Rapu: the small freshwater crayfish served through the summer in Finland.

Sillisalaatti: herring salad, often including potatoes and hard-cooked eggs.

Sima: fermented lemon drink that is traditional for May Day.

Tallimestarin Kiisseli: a special dessert, literally “the stablemaster’s fruit compote,” it is a mixture of slightly sweetened stewed raspberries and red currants, served over toasted pound cake and garnished with whipped cream and jelly.

Tippaleipa: curlicues of thinly poured cruller batter, crisply fried and traditionally served with Sima for May Day

Viili Piima: clabbered milk.