Antlers, fish-cocks and lots of salt: food in Finland

For the non-initiated, traditional Finnish cuisine may appear slightly terrifying. Or how do delicacies such as Fish-Cock ('kalakukko': a dense grouping of 'muikkus' (similar to sprats) parked next to a generous dollop of strictly full-fat lard inside a rye crust) or 'Mammi' - an Easter treat conjured of rye flour, syrup and sugar, resembling what happens after eating rather than something actually edible - sound like to you? We're also fond of eating reindeer, which is plentiful in the northernmost parts of the country. In the UK, this cute antlered beast is best known from their close partnership with Santa Claus.

Fish-Cock (Kalakukko)

In Finland, you're likely to find reindeer meat chopped up and cooked with beer and dill to create one of the country's signature dishes, the delicious reindeer stew. You can also get excellent reindeer meatballs which, alongside fried sprats and potatoes (Finnish fish and chips!) we sampled at the Kauppatori marketplace on our last trip to Helsinki. Finnish sausages are also a bit of a strange concoction. In the UK, banger-makers pride themselves on including as much meat as possible in their produce. Finnish sausage makers, on the other hand, appear determined to dodge actual meat content whenever possible, resulting in a doughy, brown/yellow mush that's really only edible in the outdoors, straight from the grill or a fireplace, coated in excellent Finnish hot mustard to oomph up a sausage taste that's so subtle it's barely even there. And let's not forget Finnish rye bread, a densely textured, heavy and dark product that may at first seem better-suited for, say, hammering in nails than eating for the non-initiated - and completely addictive for those in the know. There's also a bewildering variety of cured fish on offer, a mouthwatering feast of seafood made only marginally less appealing by the stratospheric price of most fish in Finland.   

 

But really, old school Finnish cooking is really not that different from its UK counterpart. Put simply, everything is based on stews: classic Karelia Stew back home - meat and carrots cooked with black peppercorns and bay leaves - is virtually indistinguishable from the stuff that ends up inside a beef pie here. Which is understandable: with a perma-frosted Winter that tends to drag on for half an eternity, followed up by a Spring that's prone to being interrupted by blizzards, it's no surprise people back home have drifted towards hearty, warming fare as opposed to, say, salads. Just as in the UK, go back a good few decades, and the only acceptable flavourings you'll find are salt (lots of salt. And then just a sprinkling more salt), butter, cream and - at a push - black or white pepper...which may explain why Finns used to be plagued by coronary disease. Things have moved on since then. It's now possible to sample all sorts of cuisine in Finland, with supermarkets stocking a wide range of ingredients (and strange quirks - it's quite difficult to find cuts of meat that haven't been doused in a sticky marinade, a bit of a headache for anyone who likes to mess around with their own flavour combinations), and the selection of vegetables isn't limited to potatoes, swedes and other root veggies that can just about hope to survive the Finnish winter. But the classics remain and prosper, and will most likely do so for as long as people back home gather around the kitchen table at meal times.