Local Dishes

1. karjalanpiirakka

   Karelian pasty — rye crust with rice porridge

   Usage

   Registered in 2002 as an EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed. Only the name "karjalanpiirakka" is protected, so pies that miss the spec are sold as "riisipiirakka" (rice pasty). Fillings are rice porridge, barley porridge, mashed potato or vegetables. Normally eaten spread with "munavoi" (egg butter); sold in every supermarket and station kiosk

   Grammar Note

   "karjalan" is the genitive of Karjala (Karelia). Plural nominative "karjalanpiirakat"; the partitive used when ordering is "karjalanpiirakkaa" (Kaksi karjalanpiirakkaa, kiitos = two, please)

2. munavoi

   Egg butter — spread for Karelian pasties

   Usage

   Chopped boiled egg mashed with butter and salt. The standard topping for karjalanpiirakka and a fixture of festive tables. It began as a wartime way of making scarce butter go further. In Estonia the same spread goes on rye bread at Easter

3. kalakukko

   Fish baked inside a rye loaf (Savonia)

   Usage

   The speciality of Savonia (Kuopio): fish — usually vendace — and pork belly baked inside a rye crust, traditionally 5-7 hours in a bread oven. Registered as an EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed in 2002. Sold whole at the Kuopio market hall and cut into slices

   Grammar Note

   Here "kukko" does not mean "rooster": it is an old dialect word for a dough-wrapped bake, used north of the Vyborg-Raahe line

4. lohikeitto

   Salmon soup

   Usage

   Salmon, potato, leek and dill. The cream version appears on menus as "kermainen lohikeitto". It is one kind of the general "kalakeitto" (fish soup). The second Tuesday of February is "kalakeittopäivä", national fish soup day

5. hernekeitto

   Pea and pork soup

   Usage

   A thick soup of dried green peas and pork, eaten with a dab of mustard ("sinappi"). ⚠ It is the Thursday dish: canteens serve hernekeitto with "pannukakku" (oven pancake) on Thursdays, a habit inherited from the Swedish army. Tinned versions fill every supermarket shelf, including meat-free ones

6. pannukakku

   Thick oven-baked pancake

   Usage

   ⚠ Not the pancake you expect: the Finnish pannukakku is baked thick in a tray, cut into squares and served with jam and whipped cream. The thin kind is a different word, "ohukainen" (plural "ohukaiset"). Classically the dessert that follows Thursday's pea soup

7. lihapullat

   Meatballs

   Usage

   The archetypal home dish: minced meat, breadcrumbs, onion and egg, served with mashed potato ("perunamuusi"), boiled potatoes, pasta or fries plus gravy. Lingonberry jam ("puolukkahillo") on the side is normal

   Grammar Note

   Nominative plural; the singular "lihapulla" exists but the dish is always named in the plural. Partitive plural "lihapullia" (Saisinko lihapullia = could I have meatballs)

8. poronkäristys

   Sautéed reindeer

   Usage

   The signature dish of Lapland: reindeer loin or haunch shaved thin, fried in fat and braised with a little water or beer. Always served with mashed potato and crushed lingonberry ("puolukkasurvos") or cranberries. In Northern Sámi, "báistebiđus"

9. mustamakkara

   Blood sausage (Tampere speciality)

   Usage

   Tampere's local dish, a pork-blood and barley sausage recorded as early as the 16th century. ⚠ The local way is with lingonberry jam ("puolukkahillo") and a glass of cold milk. Buy it hot from the stalls at Laukontori or Tammelantori, or at the market hall, and eat it straight from the butter paper. Until the 1980s it was called "kuuma sian verimakkara"

10. leipäjuusto

    Squeaky baked fresh cheese

    Usage

    A baked fresh cheese from Ostrobothnia, Lapland and Kainuu, shaped into a flat disc and browned in spots; it squeaks against the teeth. ⚠ Served warm with cloudberry jam ("lakkahillo"), typically alongside coffee. In the Tornio valley it is called "kahvijuusto", coffee cheese

    Grammar Note

    The reversed compound "juustoleipä" is an equally common synonym; both are correct

11. graavilohi

    Cured salmon (gravlax)

    Usage

    Nordic salmon cured, not cooked: coarse salt, sugar, white pepper and dill between the fillets for one to four days. A standard starter and buffet item. ⚠ It is raw — do not expect it cooked. Smoked salmon is a different word: "lämminsavulohi" (hot-smoked) or "kylmäsavulohi" (cold-smoked)

    Grammar Note

    "graavi" comes from Swedish "grav" (grave): medieval fishermen buried the salted fish in beach sand to ferment it

12. muikku

    Vendace — small lake fish, usually fried

    Usage

    A 5-20 cm whitefish (Coregonus albula), the most important catch of Finland's inland fishery. Rolled in rye flour and fried whole — head and bones included. ⚠ On menus it usually appears in the plural, "paistetut muikut" (fried vendace). A staple of summer market-square stalls

    Grammar Note

    Partitive "muikkua"; plural nominative "muikut", plural partitive "muikkuja". At a stall: "Annos muikkuja, kiitos" (a portion, please)

13. kaalikääryleet

    Cabbage rolls

    Usage

    Cabbage leaves wrapped around minced meat, egg and rice (or boiled potato) and baked. The Finnish touch is basting with syrup ("siirappi") and melted butter, which gives a sweet glaze. Served with lingonberry jam and boiled potatoes

    Grammar Note

    Nominative plural; the singular is "kaalikääryle". They always come several to a plate, so the plural is what is said

14. karjalanpaisti

    Karelian stew — several kinds of meat

    Usage

    Cubed meat oven-braised with nothing but water, onion, salt, pepper and bay leaf; the festive version mixes pork, beef and mutton. Served with boiled or mashed potato. It was originally just "paisti" (roast); the "Karjala-" prefix came when Karelian evacuees spread the dish across Finland after the war

15. maksalaatikko

    Liver and rice bake

    Usage

    Rice, ground liver, onion, egg, syrup and raisins baked in a dish. ⚠ It tastes sweet, because of the raisins and syrup. Eaten with melted butter and a tart lingonberry or cranberry compote. Sold year-round in the chilled ready-meal aisle

16. lanttulaatikko

    Swede (rutabaga) bake — a Christmas dish

    Usage

    One of the baked dishes on the Christmas table: swede with egg, cream, syrup, butter and breadcrumbs, spiced with ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg. It has been Christmas food since the Middle Ages; the carrot version "porkkanalaatikko" is more recent

17. imelletty perunalaatikko

    Sweetened potato bake — a Christmas dish

    Usage

    ⚠ Sweet without added sugar: the mash is held at about 50 °C so enzymes break the potato starch down into sugars (the process called "imellyttäminen"). Everyday food in Häme, a Christmas dish elsewhere. The dialect name "uunituuvinki" comes from Swedish "stuvning" (stew)

    Grammar Note

    "imelletty" is the past passive participle of "imellyttää" (to malt-sweeten), i.e. "sweetened". Labels sometimes spell it "imeletetty"

18. lihapiirakka

    Deep-fried meat and rice pastry

    Usage

    Doughnut dough around minced meat and rice, deep-fried. A mainstay of the Finnish "grilli" fast-food kiosk; split versions filled with sausage or a patty have their own names — "vety", "atomi", "lihis". Eaten with ketchup, mustard and cucumber salad

19. ruisleipä

    Sourdough rye bread

    Usage

    Voted Finland's national food. Finland eats more rye bread than any country in the world; a third of all bread eaten here is rye. ⚠ It is markedly sour — often a surprise at first. Eaten with butter and cheese, or beside soup. Always on the hotel breakfast table

20. saaristolaisleipä

    Archipelago bread — dark, sweet-and-sour loaf

    Usage

    A traditional loaf of the south-west archipelago (Finland Proper and Åland): rye, beer malt, syrup and soured milk ("piimä"), baked dark and dense in a brick shape. It keeps for months, which is why it went to sea. ⚠ It is sweet. Classically eaten with smoked fish or cheese. Available in supermarkets nationwide

21. rieska

    Unleavened flatbread

    Usage

    A thin bread baked with neither yeast nor sourdough, from barley, oats or potato with a little wheat for structure. Eaten fresh with butter. ⚠ The word means different breads in different parts of Finland; in the north it usually means the potato flatbread "perunarieska"

22. mämmi

    Mämmi — dark rye Easter dessert

    Usage

    Rye flour, rye malt and water, malt-sweetened then baked. Served chilled with sugar and cream or milk as the Easter dessert. ⚠ Famous for its pitch-black look, which startles most first-time visitors; the taste is sweet and malty. On sale only in the weeks around Easter

23. korvapuusti

    Cinnamon bun

    Usage

    Cardamom-scented "pulla" dough rolled with butter, sugar and cinnamon, cut on the diagonal and pressed in the middle with the fingers before baking — the press is what gives it its ear shape. Topped with pearl sugar. The default order with coffee in any café

    Grammar Note

    Literally "a slap on the ear" (korva = ear, puusti = slap), from the pressed shape

24. pulla

    Sweet cardamom bun

    Usage

    The general word for the sweet yeast bun of wheat, milk and butter that goes with coffee; "korvapuusti" and the braided "pitko" are both made from this dough. Baked in Finland since the late 1800s. Dialect names: "vehnänen" in the east and south-east, "nisu" in the west and north

25. runebergintorttu

    Runeberg torte — a February pastry

    Usage

    A cylindrical almond cake flavoured with arrack punch or rum, topped with raspberry jam inside a ring of icing, named after the national poet J. L. Runeberg. ⚠ A seasonal item, from January to Runeberg Day on 5 February. A few cafés in Porvoo, the poet's town, sell it year-round

26. laskiaispulla

    Shrovetide cream bun

    Usage

    A "pulla" split and filled with whipped cream plus either marzipan ("mantelimassa") or jam. ⚠ Finns take mild sides over which filling is correct. Sold around "laskiainen", Shrovetide, roughly February to March. Descended from the German Heißwecke

27. mustikkapiirakka

    Blueberry pie

    Usage

    A summer standard made with wild forest bilberries ("mustikka"). The base is shortcrust, sponge or "pulla" dough. Usually served with vanilla sauce ("vaniljakastike"); a version with a quark ("rahka") layer is also common

28. vispipuuro

    Whipped berry semolina pudding

    Usage

    Semolina cooked with berries — usually lingonberry or currant — then whipped until it turns pale pink and airy. Eaten chilled with sugar and milk. Also called "lappapuuro" or "marjapuuro"

29. viili

    Viili — stretchy soured milk

    Usage

    A Nordic soured milk related to yoghurt and kefir, but with a "long" — that is, stringy — texture before you stir it. ⚠ It stretches when lifted with a spoon; that is not spoilage. Eaten at breakfast with sugar, jam, cinnamon, roasted grain flour ("talkkuna") or berries. Next to the drinkable "piimä" in the dairy aisle

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