Fishing is one of the main industries of the local population, so fish in all forms occupies an important place in the diet of Karelians - salted, dried, dried, smoked.
Salted fish is used to prepare soups, main courses, and is also served with hot potatoes. Fish is included in vegetable salads, it is boiled, fried, baked in dough.
The favorite snack of Karelians is salted fish with boiled potatoes. It is typical that finished fish products are not topped with sauce when serving.
Karelian cuisine also uses meat products: pork, beef, veal, poultry.
In summer and autumn in Karelia, a lot of mushrooms are prepared for future use (mostly salted). Salted mushrooms are served with vegetable oil, onions or sour cream. In addition to mushrooms, strawberries, blueberries, blueberries, cranberries, and cloudberries are used.
Among the second courses, products made from rye and wheat flour, potatoes and various cereals predominate. Pancakes and flatbreads made from unleavened dough are served along with porridge, mashed potatoes, generously sprinkled with butter.
Fish, mushrooms, turnips and other products baked in dough are served whole or pre-cut into portions.
Recipes of Karelian cuisine
1. Karelian salad
The caviar is salted, and the milk and liver are boiled. Then the caviar, milk, liver and onion are finely chopped and everything is mixed.
Fresh fish caviar 75, milt 30, fish liver 30, green or onion 25.
2. Maimarekka (soup with sushi)
Place potatoes and onions, cut into large slices, into boiling water. When the water and potatoes boil, add sushik (small dried fish), bay leaf, pepper and cook until tender.
Sushik (dried fish) 80, potatoes 150, onions 25, spices, salt.
3. Kalaneitto (soup)
Potatoes are placed in boiling water, allowed to boil, then milk, fish, and onions are added and cooked until tender.
Fresh pike perch 100, potatoes 195, milk 300, onion 10, salt.
4. Naparokko (dried snapper soup)
Place thoroughly washed and pre-scalded dried perch into boiling salted water and cook until tender. The pulp is separated. Strain the broth, add fish pulp, bring to a boil, add potatoes, cut into cubes, and continue cooking. At the end of cooking, add flour diluted with cold broth and bring to readiness. When serving, add sour cream.
Dried perch 80, potatoes 200, flour 3, spices, sour cream 10, salt.
5. Maitokalakeitto (fish in milk)
A piece of fish is placed in a portioned frying pan, poured with milk and placed in a hot oven. Serve with oil.
Cod fillet 180, butter 15, milk 50, salt.
6. Kalalimtikko (fish and chips)
Raw potatoes, cut into slices, are placed in an even layer in a frying pan, and thin slices of herring are placed on it, sprinkled with chopped onions, flour, poured with oil and baked. When the potatoes are ready, the fish is poured with a raw egg mixed with milk and baked again.
Potatoes 150, egg 1/2 pcs, fresh herring 40, onions 20, sunflower oil 10, milk 25, wheat flour 3, salt.
7. Lanttulaatikko
Prepare rutabaga puree, dilute it with milk, add sugar and eggs, put it in a pan greased and bake.
Rutabaga 160, butter 5, milk 25, sugar 10, egg 1/5 pcs.
8. Rice baked with beets
The rice is boiled and combined with pieces of boiled beets. Raw eggs are diluted with milk, salt is added and mixed. This mixture is poured over rice mixed with beets and baked.
9. Kalaladika with pork (casserole)
Fresh or salted herring fillets are cut into pieces. Slices of raw potatoes are placed in a layer on a baking sheet, sprinkled with pieces of herring and chopped onions; Place another layer of potatoes and a layer of fatty pork on top. Sprinkle with onions, cover with a layer of potatoes, pour in fat and bake.
The finished dish is poured with eggs mixed with flour, salt and milk, and baked a second time. Serve hot.
Potatoes 150, salted or fresh herring 20, pork 20, onions 20, egg 1/5 pcs., flour 3, milk 25, fat 5.
10. Kalakayareytya (fish farmers)
The sour dough is rolled out into a flat cake 1 cm thick, fish fillets are placed on it, salted, sprinkled with fat, the dough is wrapped and baked.
Wheat flour 145, sunflower oil 10, sugar 5, yeast 5, fresh cod or herring, or trout or whitefish 120, butter 5.
11. Potato gates
Round cakes are formed from unleavened dough, and a filling of mashed potatoes diluted with hot milk and mixed with butter or margarine is placed in the middle of each. The edges of the cakes are pinched, the products are greased with sour cream and baked in the oven.
Flour 230, potatoes 750, milk 250, butter margarine 50, sour cream 75, salt.
12. Kakriskukka (turnip pie)
The unleavened dough is placed in a warm place and allowed to rise. Roll out thin layers, place turnips cut into thin slices on them, sprinkle with salt and flour, cover the filling with a second layer of dough and bake. The finished pie is cut into portions.
Flour 550, water 230, sugar 38, yeast 15, turnip 440, margarine 30, melange 30, fat 5, egg 1/2 pcs., salt.
13. Pannukakku (pancake)
Sugar, ground with egg, sour cream and milk, is added to wheat flour. The dough is thoroughly kneaded, placed in a greased frying pan and baked in an oven. The hot flatbread is cut into portions.
Wheat flour 390, milk 390, sour cream 80, sugar 80, egg 2 pcs., butter 15, salt.
14. Kapkarat (unleavened pancakes in a frying pan)
Pour a little cold milk into wheat flour mixed with salt and mix thoroughly. Then pour in the rest of the milk and stir with a whisk. The dough is poured in a thin layer into a frying pan greased with lard and fried on both sides. Before serving, place a thin layer of viscous rice or wheat porridge on the pancake. Drizzle with butter.
Wheat flour 50, milk 125, egg 1/2 pcs., lard 2, butter 15, salt.
15. Ryyunipiiraita (fried pie)
Unleavened dough is rolled out into a flat cake 1 mm thick, and crumbly wheat porridge with sugar is placed on it. The edges are connected, giving a semicircular shape. Fry in melted butter.
Flour 30, butter 10, millet 20, sugar 5.
16. Makeita piiraita (sweet pies)
From choux pastry, rolled out in a thin layer, cut out mugs with a notch, place granulated sugar in the middle, fold them into a semicircle and fry.
Wheat flour 30, sugar 17, melted butter 10.
17. Skantsy (flatbread with cheese)
Thin flat cakes are rolled out from unleavened dough and lightly dried in the oven. The flatbread is placed in a frying pan, sprinkled with grated cheese, covered with another flatbread, poured with oil and baked.
Flour 30, sour cream 10, water 50, grated cheese 15.
18. Coconut with cottage cheese
From unleavened dough, roll out a skaniets (flatbread) 2 mm thick, grease it with butter and place two pancakes on it, greased with oatmeal mixed with butter and cottage cheese. The layered pancakes are folded in half, greased with butter, covered with skeins, the product is given a semicircular shape, pinched and baked. Served with butter.
Wheat flour 50 (including for pancakes 20), sour cream 10, water 50, ghee 5, oatmeal 30, cottage cheese 15, butter, salt.
19. Potato kolobos
Flatbreads are rolled out from sour dough to a thickness of 1 cm, on which mashed potatoes are placed, greased with sour cream and baked.
Wheat flour 40, potatoes 115, yeast 1, milk 50, butter 10, sugar 1, sour cream 15, salt.
20. Perunapiyraita (potato pies)
The boiled potatoes are stirred, flour and salt are added and the flatbreads are cut, millet porridge is placed in the middle of each, the product is shaped into a semicircle, greased with butter and baked.
Potatoes 75, flour 18, butter 8, millet 10.
21. Kulebyaka with mushrooms
The sour dough is rolled out into a strip 18–20 cm wide and 1 cm thick. Minced salted chopped mushrooms and onions are placed in the middle of the strip. The edges of the dough are connected and pinched. Brush with egg and bake.
Wheat flour 160, sugar 8, sunflower oil 8, yeast 3, egg 1/6 pcs., onions 35, mushrooms 150.
22. Cocachipea
Flatbreads are formed from sour dough. Place minced meat in the middle of each, join the edges of the dough and pinch them together. The products are greased with vegetable oil and baked. Minced meat is prepared from peas, minced and mixed with oatmeal, chopped onion and butter, and salt.
Rye flour 60, sourdough 10, oatmeal 10, peas 15, onions 10, sunflower oil 15, salt.
23. Oatmeal spikes
Flatbreads 1 cm thick are formed from sour dough. Minced meat made from curdled milk mixed with oatmeal and egg is placed in the middle of each. Spread with sour cream and bake.
Rye flour 30, sourdough 10, oatmeal 20, curdled milk 20, egg 1/10 pcs., melted butter 5, sour cream 10, salt.
24. Lingonberries with oatmeal
Lingonberries are washed, then pounded and mixed with oatmeal and sugar.
Lingonberries 100, oatmeal 50, sugar 50.
25. Oatmeal jelly
“Hercules” cereal is poured with warm water and placed in a warm place for 24 hours, the mixture is filtered, salt is added and boiled, stirring frequently, to form a thick jelly. Butter is placed in hot jelly, then poured into molds and cooled. Served with milk. When serving, you can sprinkle with granulated sugar.
National Karelian cuisine is a kind of symbiosis of Old Russian cuisine and the cuisine of Northern Europe. In the restaurant menus you can find especially many similarities with the dishes of the Karelians’ closest neighbors - the Finns and Estonians. Here in Karelia, like nowhere else, traditional delicacies of Russian cuisine and Finnish soups and snacks organically coexist on the table: game and fish, pickles and dried meats, rich borscht and Finnish fish soup with Lohikeitto milk, Scandinavian muffins and Russian pies. However, there are also dishes that can only be found in Karelia. This is their homeland, this is where they were traditionally prepared before and are still being prepared to this day.
Soups
The first courses of local cuisine are inimitable fish soup. Moreover, it can be not only in fish broth, as we are used to, but also with the addition of cream, milk, butter. This traditional white fish stew is called Kalakeitto (kala-keito) on restaurant menus. Salmon soup - a festive version with the addition of cream, is already called Lohikeitto (lohi-keito) and is known under this name throughout the world.
It was customary to prepare such rich fish soup for dear guests, because it has a special, velvety taste, devoid of fishy smell. Even an avid gourmet and picky eater will not refuse a bowl of this amazing soup.
Recipe for Lohikeitto (Karelian soup with cream)
The recipe for lohi-keito is quite simple: salmon is cut, separating the fillet from the bone and skin. Putting the fillet aside, make broth from the rest, to which, after boiling, add salt, black pepper, bay leaf and onion head. Then, after straining, the broth takes in potatoes, leeks, and carrots. After 15 minutes of cooking over low heat, add flour and butter to the soup, then diced fillet and, at the very end, cream.
Traditions of cooking fish soup in Karelia
Unlike a restaurant recipe, the method of preparing yushka ("yushka" is the more traditional name for fish soup in Karelian use) is somewhat different. According to the old recipe, pieces of fish were boiled whole without cleaning. To make the fish soup more filling, it was also coated with flour, eggs and exotic items such as Icelandic moss or birch buds were added.
The result was not only satisfying, but also very healthy food, because all these original seasonings are a storehouse of vitamins that are so necessary to support the human body during the long northern winter.
Before the meal, they always took out pieces of fish from the fish soup, which they ate separately as a second course, adding a lot of salt. It is interesting that even during fishing there was a kind of “division” of the catch: the offal and head went to the rower, the best piece went to the cook, and the tail went to the slackers.
In the old days, fish soup was also cooked from dried fish, which was filled with water and simmered in a Russian oven for about a day. Often this dish resembled a dense and satisfying fish porridge.
Another recipe for making Karelian fish soup is fermented fish soup. However, this dish has become rare. V. Pokhlebkin in his book “National Cuisines of Our Peoples” writes that the art of fermenting fish has been lost, and modern cooks do not master it to the same extent as they could in the old days; their fish turns out with a bitterness or an unpleasant odor.
Speaking about simmering as the main component of recipes for preparing all kinds of dishes in Karelia, one cannot fail to mention such a dish as stewed fish for the main course.
The secret to preparing such juicy and tender fish with a tantalizing olfactory aroma lies in prolonged heating of the cast iron with its contents in the oven. Naturally, the contents of the cast iron pot were fish and a filling made from milk or an egg-milk mixture. The peculiarity of uniform heating of cast iron in a Russian stove is an important component of a successful result. Trying such fish, poached in the oven, is a rarity not only for guests, but also for the average Karelian; If you manage to come across such a recipe on the menu, be sure to try it, you won’t regret it!
Pies and pastries
Karelian cuisine is rich in a variety of pies and other flour products. Most often they are made from rye dough. By the way, wheat flour, common in central Russia and the south of Russia, is rarely found in the national Karelian cuisine. Most often, ground rye, oats and barley are used in Karelian dishes.
Skantsy- or, as they are also called today, “pies for son-in-law” - a traditional type of pastry for Karelian cuisine. Classic skants are a crescent-shaped rye flour pie filled with millet or rice porridge. According to tradition, the dough was rolled out (hence the name “skanets”) when matchmakers came to the house, baked and treated to the groom and matchmakers, hence the name “pies for son-in-law.”
Today, when preparing skants, the dough is often made with white wheat flour, and instead of rich porridge, they prefer a sweet filling of sugar or honey. The result is a wonderful holiday pastry and an excellent treat for tea - which is quick and easy to prepare.
Wickets- another popular and well-known pie of Karelian cuisine in many countries of the world. A wicket is a kind of open small pie, like a cheesecake, often square or polygonal in shape. The filling for the gates could be the same porridge, as well as potatoes or berries.
The unusual name “wicket” has two possible origins. According to one, the name of Karelian pies comes from the Finnish “kalittoa - spread”, because the viscous filling is spread on a base pancake made of unleavened dough. According to another, from the Russian “kalita” - that is, a wallet or bag, which is reminiscent of a wicket in shape. In such a “bag” you can put almost any content - filling to your liking. Perhaps the most delicious and beloved by many are the berry ones. They are generously greased with oil and placed in a deep pan, which is carefully wrapped. Fragrant, oozing with berry syrup, they are loved by all those with a sweet tooth.
Video recipe for making wickets
They say that such pies were made already in the 9th century, that is, even before the baptism of Rus'. Today, wickets are a popular type of baked goods not only in the north-west of Russia, but also in Finland and the Scandinavian countries, where wickets made everywhere are called “Karelian pies”.
A meal with wickets in Karelia resembles a kind of family ritual. A large bowl filled with hot milk and butter is placed in the middle of the table. All pies are placed in a bowl and soaked in the creamy mixture. After the pies have become soft, they are taken by the hostess, who places them on the plates of everyone present, according to seniority. They eat this dish only with their hands, wiping them on a towel lying nearby.
Pies with fish. All kinds of fish pies are very common in Karelia, oblong in shape, with a hole into which sour cream is poured, which makes the filling unusually tasty. To flavor fish, Finnish Karelians sometimes cover it with a layer of finely chopped pork fat. The fish is placed in this pie whole, in layers, sometimes layered with mushrooms and onions. The filling simply comes out with juice that soaks into a thin layer of rye dough, and the taste of such a pie can tempt any gourmet, even if he doesn’t like fish dishes.
One of the notable varieties of fish pies is the Finnish "Easter" pie - Kalakukko (kalakukko). Outwardly, it looks like a closed loaf of rye dough, but instead of a bread crumb, inside it is a juicy fish filling mixed with onions and lard. Easter fish bread is served warm with a crispy crust and eaten with a spoon from the loaf like a stew.
Menu in Karelian restaurants
While vacationing in Karelia, you will probably want to try real Karelian cuisine: hearty and rich fish soup, authentic kalitki cooked with fresh wild berries, tasty morsels of salted fish and fried game.
If you are relaxing in our Karelian dream home - a guest house on the shore of Lake Onega on Malaya Medvezhka (Medvezhyegorsk) - then at your service is the menu of the restaurant, which is located next to the cottage, just a 5-minute leisurely step away. , restaurant menu .
Those who are passing through Karelia, traveling around the world, can visit our restaurant, as well as other taverns and cafes, which will certainly delight you with their varied menu. Here you can find dishes not only of Karelian cuisine, but also, without difficulty, order Caucasian shish kebab, Japanese sushi, Swedish meatballs or even Mediterranean lasagna.
While passing through Petrozavodsk, we recommend visiting the Karelian Gornitsa restaurant, where you can taste such exotic northern dishes as Karelian mints made from salmon meat in juniper sauce or roasted bear meat in a bag of rye dough. The names alone beckon and tease your appetite!
Also here you will be offered to taste a collection of tinctures made from forest herbs and berries, with the addition of natural honey, prepared for visitors according to ancient recipes.
Video recipe for cooking whitefish on a barbecue from the chef of Karelian Gornitsa
Like any national cuisine, Karelian cuisine consists mainly of what grows, lives and inhabits a certain territory. The Karelian region, mostly located in the north-west of Russia and in Finland, is rich in its forests and lakes. And Karelian cuisine is replete with a variety of fish dishes. It is boiled, dried, salted and even fermented. There is very little meat in local cuisine.
In addition, gifts of the forest are widely added to dishes - mushrooms and berries: strawberries, blueberries, blueberries, cloudberries, cranberries. Wheat flour is practically not used in cooking. It is replaced by rye and barley. Dairy products are not as common as in neighboring Estonia. The heat treatment of products in Karelian cuisine is also special. They don’t have the concept of “Frying”. They even call fried pies boiled in oil. Smoking fish is also not typical for them, as in Estonia, located next door.
Fish is the basis of Karelian cuisine
Speaking about Karelian cuisine, one cannot fail to mention the signature Karelian fish soup - kalaruokka. This is fish soup prepared in a very special way. It is cooked mainly from whitefish. Unlike traditional Russian fish soup, which is transparent like a tear, kalaruokka is somewhat cloudy in appearance. The peculiarity of its preparation is that shortly before the end of cooking it is passed through a thick layer of coal. This is done to ensure that all bitterness and unnecessary impurities are removed. After all, it is cooked with the addition of moss, pine and birch buds. Egg, milk, and also dried small fish – sushik – are added to the kalaruokka.
Fish is the main component of all Karelian cuisine. It was prepared in incredible quantities. They salted and fermented fish in pits according to grades. Thin sticks were placed on the fish placed in the pits and pressure was placed on top so that all the fish were under the brine. Small fish also did not disappear. It was dried and added to various dishes for fat. The valuable caviar was mainly sold, and the leftovers were used to make filling for pancakes. Some peoples ate raw salted fish, while others cooked it after soaking it.
Features of the national cuisine of Karelia
Another characteristic feature of Karelian national cuisine is the almost complete absence of main courses. They were replaced by a variety of pies with the same fish made from unleavened dough. Pies were baked in a variety of shapes, but mostly they were crescent-shaped or semicircular pies. Mainly rye flour was used for baking. An unexpected feature of Karelian fish pies for us is that they put it without cleaning it first, right with the scales.
Vegetable dishes in Karelian cuisine include turnips, potatoes, and in smaller quantities radishes, carrots, and onions. Moreover, potatoes began to be grown in Karelia quite recently.
In Karelian cuisine there is no such thing as dessert. Almost no sweet dishes were prepared. Among the delicacies familiar to our understanding, the Karelians had only pies with wild berries. The favorite delicacy for the peoples of Karelia was milk with the same berries. They collected quite a lot of berries in the rich local forests.
Kvass is a very popular drink. It is made from malt, turnips and bread. Also in Karelia they drink coffee and tea, including infusions of various medicinal herbs.
Karelia is pristine nature, rich history, unique architectural monuments and shrines of the Russian north. This is the land of taiga forests that surround the glacial lakes Ladoga and Onega, the harsh nature of the White Sea. And Karelia is also people - a bizarre conglomerate of Karelians, Finns, Vepsians and other representatives of northern nationalities on the one hand, and Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians on the other.
Since ancient times, natural resources have influenced the formation of national cuisine, the basis of which was hunting and fishing trophies and gifts from the forests. Karelian cuisine is simple and understandable to our stomach, it is tasty and healthy. What is worth trying in Karelia?
Food in Karelia
In the land of lakes and rivers, the main dish at all times was fish - the basis of a well-fed life. In different versions, there is a saying among local residents that if the earth does not feed, then the water will. Lake fish is salted, dried, dried, smoked, pickled, baked, fish soup, pies, etc. are prepared from it.
The local cuisine has traditionally been influenced by the culinary traditions of its neighbors - Estonians and Finns and, of course, Old Russian cuisine. On the table, borscht with Scandinavian muffins, Finnish milk soup with Russian pies sit side by side in complete harmony.
Top 10 Karelian dishes
Gate
It is rightfully considered the most national and most popular dish. A common feature of Karelian, Estonian and Finnish cooking is the predominant use of barley and rye flour. These pies are also baked from rye dough and filled with fish, potatoes, cottage cheese, cheese, berries, millet or barley porridge, etc. They come in different shapes: oval, round or with different numbers of angles. The gates are baked with an open center and figuratively pinched edges, greased with butter or sour cream. The dough is made unleavened, using yogurt, and the wickets are certainly baked in the oven.
The name comes from carols, Christmas songs. The pies were originally baked specifically to treat carolers. Today, wickets are an indispensable and famous attribute of local cuisine - from restaurant menus to home feasts.
Kalaruoka
Fish soup, the main first course of the national menu. In Karelian, kala is fish, ruoka is food. A dish of inimitable taste in any variation. In Karelia it is prepared not only with fish broth, but often with milk and even cream. White fish soup is called kalakeito, salmon soup with cream is called lohikeito. The latter dish is known to gourmets all over the world; it has a complex, mild taste with almost no fishy smell. Lohikeito is also prepared from trout from Karelian lakes. It’s also worth trying – creamy, rich, delicious fish soup.
In popular usage, the fish soup was called yushka. According to old recipes, the fish was boiled whole, flour, eggs, and even birch or pine buds and Icelandic moss were added to the fish soup. Not just for thickness. Such exotic seasonings provided vitamin support during long, harsh winters.
Rybnik
Gifts from the Karelian lakes are the main components of many original recipes of national cuisine. Fish pies - rybniki - are also baked from rye unleavened dough in a Russian oven. This method of preparation deserves special mention. Simmering in the oven is traditional for almost all dishes of Karelian cuisine. Both fish and wild meat reveal their flavor better, and the dish turns out much healthier than fried meat. Today, dishes according to folk recipes are cooked on modern equipment, but with the effect of a Russian oven, observing centuries-old traditions.
Rybnik is baked in a rectangular shape or in the shape of a fish. This is a must-have dish for all holidays. It turns out juicy because the fish in the pie is put raw and fresh, sour cream, onions, and sometimes mushrooms are added to it. Be sure to try it – it’s not only delicious, but also practically healthy.
Fish dishes
There is a huge selection of them in Karelia. Like most dishes, fish is stewed/simmered in different variations. Cod with new potatoes in cream, or fried fish under a thin crust of cheese - everything turns out incredibly tasty. The popular Karelian fish is used both as a first and second course. Cod or vendace is covered with a layer of potatoes and chopped onions, filled with water, spices and oil are added and simmered over fire. They eat it hot or cold, but it tastes better cold. When visiting the island, you can buy smoked trout from the monks, which is incredibly tasty.
Recipes for dried fish - pike, ide, small salmon - are borrowed from Finnish cuisine. The result is a delicacy for gourmets.
Bakery
It occupies a special place in the national cuisine. Traditional rye flour is used for pies. The pies are made thick and thin. Among thin ones, son-in-law pies are very popular. The dough is rolled out thinly to an oval pancake, the filling is placed inside, the pancake is folded in half and pinched. The filling can be wild berries, mushrooms or fish. It still turns out delicious.
A truly popular filling is considered to be porridge well boiled in the oven with onions and butter. According to a long tradition, porridge pies are made in the shape of a sickle, as a symbol of peasant labor.
As for baked goods, experts recommend trying sulchiny – Karelian rye pancakes stuffed with sweet porridge. A hearty delicacy, more suitable for breakfast.
Gifts of the forest
Northern berries - lingonberries, cloudberries, cranberries - as well as blueberries and strawberries, occupy a large place in the national cuisine. Pies with wild berries were and are considered a traditional dessert in Karelian cuisine. On par with soaked lingonberries and cloudberries. Karelians also eat lingonberries with oatmeal and fresh berries with milk for dessert.
Gradually, even ritual jelly, oatmeal and rye, was replaced with berry jelly, at a variety of events - from weddings to funerals.
Today, delicious fruit drinks and jelly made from forest products can be tasted in any Karelian catering establishment: in canteens, in iconic restaurants and in any cafe. And you can order lingonberry sauce for meat and fish dishes - it will be delicious!
Mushroom table
The range of mushrooms from the Karelian forests is simply fantastic. There are about 300 species, 23 species are listed in the Red Book. In Karelia, mushrooms are used in cooking in second place after fish. Since ancient times they have been salted, dried, cooked into soups and made into pies. Mushroom pickles are also worth trying. Or salads with mushrooms, for example “Valaam”: porcini mushrooms with cucumbers and peas in cream sauce.
You can try any mushroom soup - from chanterelles, honey mushrooms, porcini mushrooms or any others. Its taste, stewed according to ancient traditions, will not disappoint expectations. Minced mushrooms are used not only as a filling for the famous Karelian wickets and other baked goods. Meatballs, cabbage rolls, stuffed tomatoes and other delicious dishes are made from it. In any case, every guest of the northern region, when introduced to the local cuisine, will try Karelian mushroom delicacies and will not be disappointed.
Wild meat or game dishes
In the old days, the forest fed not only mushrooms and berries. Prey was not easy for hunters, so venison, elk, wild boar and even bear meat were considered a delicacy on the Karelian table. The cooking principle was traditional - simmering. For long-term storage, the meat was salted and dried. Today in restaurants you can try roast elk according to an old recipe - in a pot with a lid made of rye dough. Or even more exotic - bear meat. It is simmered with carrots and onions in a vessel made of rye dough. Interesting, tasty and unforgettable.
It is also worth trying game: partridge, wood grouse or black grouse. The carcasses are cooked entirely in herbs, with wild berries.
Karelian Kanunik or traditional meat with local flavor
With the advent of livestock among the inhabitants, dishes made from beef, pork and even lamb appeared in the national cuisine. But still in accordance with Karelian traditions. A typical example: eve. The meat is stewed in pieces with turnips, rutabaga and potatoes. When it is almost ready, they add... fish, of course! In season - fresh vendace, in winter salted or dried. And they continue to simmer until done. Often kanunik is prepared from three types of meat - pork, beef and lamb. It’s worth a try to appreciate the combination of meat and fish flavors.
Dairy dishes
The proximity to milk also affected the recipes for dairy dishes. The favorite dairy product of Karelians is homemade cottage cheese. Curd butter is often prepared from it: butter and sour cream are added to freshly prepared cottage cheese. Egg butter is prepared by analogy: mashed boiled eggs are mixed with softened butter. It’s also worth trying the curd cheese, also based on a Finnish recipe. It is based on the same cottage cheese with melted butter. Delicious, especially with boiled eggs or boiled new potatoes.
You can try cheese pasta as a sweet dish. This is a soft cheese made from curd milk, whipped with sugar, butter and eggs. Often - with the addition of raisins.
The Republic of Karelia, located in northwestern Russia, is often called the lake region. It’s not surprising: there are really a lot of lakes in this region. It must be said that Karelia is not only a Russian region. The provinces of South and North Karelia are also in neighboring Finland. The population of Karelia consists of Russians, Karelians, Finns and Vepsians (a small Finno-Ugric people also living in the Leningrad and Vologda regions of the Russian Federation).
Karelia is a region visited by quite a large number of tourists. They are attracted here by the already mentioned numerous lakes - beautiful, restrained, strict northern beauty, the famous islands: Kizhi (with monuments of wooden architecture) and Valaam (Valaam Monastery). Karelian cuisine, without a doubt, also cannot but arouse interest among those who come to Karelia, and among those who simply love culinary experiments, expanding the geography of prepared dishes.
Fish
It is not for nothing that this small virtual culinary journey began with the mention of numerous Karelian lakes. The fact is that fish, which abounded in local reservoirs for a long time, is the main food of the people who inhabited the region. They used it in a variety of forms: they cooked it fresh, salted it (in Karelian - suolattu kala), fermented it, dried it (ahavoittu kala), but almost never smoked it.
To store salted fish by grade, special pits were used, as well as wooden barrels and tubs. The fish was covered with a splinter on top and a heavy stone oppression was placed - the brine was supposed to cover it. North Karelians cooked fish “with flavor” (kevätkala). In addition, northerners often ate raw salted fish, while southern and middle Karelians always cooked it, and even pre-soaked it.
Sushik (kabakala) - dried fish fines - was very popular. They made strong fish soup from the dry soup. For medicinal purposes, they ate fish oil melted from the insides of pike or perch. The consumption of fish by Karelians can be called almost waste-free: flour was made from fish bones. Basically, however, it was added to livestock feed. However, sometimes they were also used to prepare fish soup. The scales of large fish were used for jellied meat. Valuable caviar, as a rule, was sold, and the rest was often baked in the oven (even caviar pancakes were made) and eaten hot or cold.
Fish soup (kalaruoka) was and remains the main Karelian first course. A typical Karelian fish soup is made from whitefish. There may also be milk soup, and also fish soup made from pickled fish. However, the latter is now rarely prepared, except in villages. The fact is that, following the traditional recipe, before the end of cooking (about five minutes), such fish soup should be passed through a layer of birch charcoal - this will relieve the fish soup of bitterness and possible unpleasant odor. Agree, in urban conditions birch charcoal is not always at hand... Chicken eggs are added to Karelian fish soup. In general, unlike Russian fish soup - transparent, Karelian fish soup is cloudy. After all, in addition to milk and eggs, it may also contain Icelandic moss, birch and pine buds, sourdough and rye flour.
By the way, it’s worth special mention about the influence of the Russian oven on the Karelian culinary tradition. Its appearance in Karelian homes changed the technology of cooking. Karelians cooked, stewed or baked their food in a Russian oven. There is no word for “fry” in the Karelian language. Even some types of pies that were actually fried in oil were called keitinpiiroa - “boiled (in oil) pies.”
All the rest
Let's return to the first courses - in addition to fish soup, Karelians ate something else. They prepared, for example, cabbage soup or soup (both were called in one word: ruoka). Shchi was made from fresh or pickled cabbage leaves. They also added onions, turnips, and later potatoes (when they began to grow them), as well as barley. These cabbage soup were common, everyday Karelian food. They had lunch or dinner. Sometimes meat was added to the cabbage soup. Karelian potato soup is also known, which is prepared from only potatoes and seasoned with sour cream. However, if the housewife had stocked up on mushrooms (pickled or dried them), they and onions were added to the soup. In addition, the ancient Karelian soup with wheat flour, potatoes and linseed oil is famous.
Meat. In ancient times, Karelians ate little. Basically, it was meat from wild animals (elk, deer, wild boar, game birds). Later, when the Karelians mastered cattle breeding and agriculture, they also began to eat livestock meat (beef, sometimes lean lamb, less often pork). Mostly meat was eaten during haymaking and in winter. To keep it for a long time, it, like fish, was salted and dried. They often took dried meat with them on long journeys.
Turnip is the main root vegetable of Karelian cuisine. Many different dishes were prepared from it: soups, casseroles, porridges, stewed fruit, kvass, and dried. Potatoes replaced it only at the beginning of the last century. Other vegetables consumed by Karelians: radish, onion, cabbage, rutabaga, and carrots in small quantities. Vegetable gardening in Karelia was previously quite poorly developed.
Karelians loved (and love) milk, as well as products made from it. Cottage cheese is especially popular. Many Karelians prepared cottage cheese during the spring-summer period, and from it for the winter they made homemade cheese (muigiemaido), which was eaten with boiled potatoes and sour cream. In addition, the cottage cheese was dried. There was also yogurt on Karelian tables. It was often served mixed with unleavened milk. Goat milk became widespread among the Karelians only in the 1930s. It is also worth remembering colostrum - the milk of the first milk yield. In some areas of Karelia it was baked in pots, producing a product similar to cheese (yysto). Karelians did not consume reindeer milk, although they were engaged in reindeer herding (especially in the north). Karelians also churned butter. It was mainly put into porridge, and later into potatoes. They hardly ate butter with bread.
As for the bread itself, in Karelia it was baked from rye, barley or oatmeal. Often there was not enough flour, so the practice of various additives to flour appeared and took root: moss, barley straw, pine sapwood. In addition to simple bread, they baked pies. In addition to the already mentioned fishmongers, they also baked wickets (sipainiekku) - pies filled with millet and barley cereals, oatmeal, and mashed potatoes. Local housewives had a saying: “A gate requires eight.” It was meant that to make such pies, as a rule, eight components are needed: flour, water, salt, milk, curdled milk, sour cream, butter and filling.
It must be said that in Karelian cuisine there are no fruit dishes or confectionery products. Dessert was and remains pies with wild berries (cranberries, blueberries, lingonberries). Karelians often ate cloudberries and still eat them soaked. But some Karelians did not collect blueberries at all - many believed that they were an “unclean” berry and that they gave them “a headache.” Fresh berries with milk are a favorite Karelian delicacy.
Among the drinks, it is worth noting kvass (from turnips, bread or malt). Karelians also knew tea and drank decoctions of forest herbs, including for medicinal purposes. Karelian beer is known among alcoholic drinks. True, the traditional recipe for its preparation is now considered lost. From a certain time, Karelians knew vodka and wine, but these drinks, naturally, were borrowed from other cuisines. First of all, from Russian, and also from Finnish.
Ritual Karelian dishes.
One cannot fail to mention the dishes that Karelians ate during various rituals. So, at holidays and weddings, oatmeal jelly was always served. There is an interesting Karelian custom: oatmeal jelly was served to the groom after the first wedding night. If he started eating the jelly from the edge, everything was fine. But if it’s from the middle, it means the bride lost her virginity before the wedding. And this was a shame for her and for all her relatives. However, the wedding was not necessarily upset because of this...
Another old Karelian custom is also known: if matchmakers came to the younger sister in the family, and the eldest was not yet married, then they were offered to first taste the bottom layer of jelly, so as not to touch the top layer that covered it.
The same oatmeal jelly, however, was also served at funerals, along with rye jelly (it is now customary for Karelians to remember the deceased with berry jelly). Bread kvass was also an obligatory “funeral” drink. Moreover, they slurped it with spoons from common dishes. In some regions of Karelia, kulaga was prepared from sprouted rye. Rye malt was poured into boiled water and eaten hot with bread. It, like kvass, was enjoyed from common dishes.
On St. Peter's Day (06/29/12/07) they baked cottage cheese cakes (kabu), and when they said goodbye to summer (08/1/14) - pies with blueberries.
Karelian cuisine recipes
Naturally, many ancient Karelian dishes are now, alas, forgotten. Others have changed somewhat. Karelian cuisine in the twentieth century borrowed a lot from Russian cuisine. Borscht in Petrozavodsk (the capital of Karelia) today is as common as in Moscow. But “Culinary Eden” still offers you more traditional recipes of Karelian cuisine. As they say, let's taste Karelia. Let's start, of course, with fish.
Salted fish “with flavor” (kevätkala).
Ingredients:
bucket of fish,
1700 g salt,
nettle.
Preparation:
To cook fish “with flavor,” it is advisable to catch it yourself in Karelian lakes or rivers. You can, of course, buy it in a store, but the pleasure will not be the same.
The fish is caught during spring spawning (except for burbot), cut from the back - large, or along the belly from head to tail - medium and small. The fish is gutted and washed well. Coarse salt is poured inside. The fish is placed in a wooden barrel or tub with its backs down. Each row must be sprinkled with salt. Then cover the barrel with a lid. When the fish releases juice, place a weight on top and place the fish in a cool place.
After standing like this all summer, the fish will be salted, but will begin to emit an unpleasant odor. To avoid this, you can top it with nettles while salting. Kevätkala is considered good if the fish does not bend when held by the tail in a horizontal position.
Caviar pancakes
Ingredients:
fresh fish roe,
rye or oat flour,
melted butter,
salt to taste.
Preparation:
Peel the caviar from films, lightly salt it, mix with flour. No need to add water. Cook in a frying pan in ghee.
Soup soup (kabarokka)
Ingredients:
sushchik (dried small fish, including roach),
water,
potato,
black peppercorns,
onion.
Preparation:
Place the dryer in cold water and soak for 1 hour. Then, without changing the water, put the dryer on the fire. Cook over low heat for 20 minutes. After this, cut the potatoes into medium-sized slices. Before the end of cooking (when the potatoes are cooked), chop the onions. This soup can be served both hot and cold.
Roast Karelian style (Karjalanpaisti)
Ingredients:
200 g beef,
200 g pork,
150 g lamb,
100 g liver and kidneys,
2 heads of onions,
Bay leaf,
salt to taste.
Preparation:
Rinse the meat well. If using salted meat, soak it first. Cut into pieces and place in a clay pot. First lamb, then beef, pork, and on top - pieces of liver and kidneys. Fill everything with water so that it covers all the meat, add salt. Add chopped onion. Place the pot in the oven, but not very hot, or in a Russian oven, if you have one. The idea is to keep the roast in the oven for a long time, perhaps even a whole night or day until evening.
