What are Finnish flavors and Finnish cuisine?

Finnish cuisine is tasty blend of hearty, simple dishes and foraged delicacies. From the abundance of wild berries and mushrooms in its forests, to the fresh fish from its lakes and coastal waters, Finnish cooking draws heavily on natural ingredients. This however, makes it hard to replicate outside of Finland. Finding fresh lingonberries, chanterelles, or certain fishes/meats can be hard to find.

That's not to say there are some things you can replicate! It's just not quite the same. However, I hail from Minnesota, which is truely the Finland of the United States. Both the country and state are referred to as "Land of 10,000 Lakes". There are some things my geographic region may more easily acquire than perse someone living in southern New Mexico. The abundance of lake fish, venison, and a few available foraged ingredients have helped in my culinary exploration of the cuisine. (This is also a state full of Nordic immigrants interested in these types of cuisines as a heritage.)

SO, back to business. What the fuck is Finnish cuisine? What defines it? Let's break it down into a few different categories. This is no particular order.

Dairy: Butter, Milk, and Buttermilk Finland is not a spicy country. The spiciest you're going to get is white pepper. And I must emphasize WHITE pepper, as I haven't seen black pepper come up in any recipes so far. So then what the hell are they seasoning their food with? For one, the freshness and seasonality of Finnish ingredients requires less aggressive seasoning as the ingredients shine well on their own. But also... butter. Anthony Bourdain once said "In any good restaurant, assume you've eaten a stick of butter." Well, in any good Finnish recipe, assume that a common condiment will often be butter. Finnish dairy products are extremely high quality, and milk is a popular beverage there, even among adults. They also have a fondness for buttermilk, which makes sense as it is a by-product from making butter. (Another tenant of Finnish cuisine is to not waste ingredients.) Their high quality milk makes high quality butter, perfect for spreading on your delicious slice of rye bread. Finns are also accustomed to salted butter, which honestly is the only butter in my opinion. Get your unsalted butter off my table. Dill & Chives

These hearty little herbs grow well in Finland as they are cool season crops. Traditionally these would be a "summer only" herbs, but now are widely used and more readily available. Dill and chives are used to season and flavor potatoes, fish, sauces, soups, pickles, and fresh salads. Cardamom

Cardamom is not native to Finland (or any other Noric country for that matter) but it is by FAR the most popular baking spice. It is, in my opinion, superior to cinnamon. Cardamom is the core component of pulla, the core Finnish baking dough used for many desserts. Your really need fresh caradamom seeds though. The ground stuff isn't quite the same though it'll do you a service in a pinch.

Coffee

When it comes to coffee, Finns go hard. They consistently rank as the top consumers of coffee consumption per capita. There is a social component to coffee consumption, and you 100% need to offer coffee to your Finnish guests as a sign of hospitality. Finns drink a lighter roast "all day" coffee. Unlike the Italians who take a shot of strong-ass espresso standing up in a cafe, Finns are leisurely drinking milder coffee in multiple cups. You can often tell a lot about a culture by it's language. Which is why Finns have so many different words for different types of coffee consumption: Aamukahvi - morning coffee Aamupäiväkahvi- mid-morning coffee Iltapäiväkahvi - afternoon coffee Yökahvi - night coffee Kakkukahvi - coffee with cake Pullakahvi - coffee with pulla I'm sure there are more even than that list! Just think of Finns as coffee hobbits. (Breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, etc.)

Rye

The cornerstone of the Finnish kitchen. RYE. Finnish rye bread is so good. Unlike what you buy in the US (and frankly anywhere outside of Finland), Finnish rye bread is TRUE rye. Other rye breads are cut with filler flour, but a lot of Finnish bread is made with a much heavier rye ratio (or with ONLY rye flour). This means that Finnish rye bread is denser, richer, darker, and frankly more tasty. A good majority of the popular Finnish ryes are sourdough ryes, or hapanleipä. All these types of popular Finnish rye breads are hapanleipä:

1. Reikäleipä/Ruisreikäleipä- this is the iconic Finnish sourdough rye. It is circular shaped and has a hole in the middle for drying on poles.

2. Limppu - a denser and rounder little loaf of rye bread.

3. Ruispala (you will see this listed on packages as ruispalat - adding the t makes it plural pieces vs ruispala meaning a singular piece) - a rectangular and less dense bread. Common in supermarkets.

There are so many other types of rye I could go on listing them for days. But maybe I'll save that for another time. I'm not a rye expert (yet). However there is one more I want to add that is my FAVORITE, and it is not a hapanleipä. Saaristolaisleipä or Finnish archipelago bread is a sweeter rye bread that is dense, chewy and absolutely delicious. It's got a sticky crumb due to the use of molasses and malts. It is simple to make but some of the ingredients are hard to find in the US. Besides the obvious use of bread making, rye flour is used in all other sorts of ways in Finnish kitchens. Porridge, dusting or battering, etc.

Fish

Finland is both coastal and contains hella lakes. This results in the use of many fishes in Finnish cuisine. Fish can be prepared several ways: smoked, fried, baked, boiled, pickled, tartare, gravlax, you name it. Common Finnish fishes you might find in recipes are:

1. Salmon

2. Perch

3. Pike

4. Vendance (a small little fish similar to smelt, usually eaten fried and whole)

5. Baltic Herring

6. Whitefish

7. Trout

Berries

With its vast forests, clean air, and long summer days, Finland provides ideal conditions for a wide variety of wild berries to thrive. Berry picking is not just a pastime in Finland; it's a deeply ingrained part of the culture, with "everyman's right" (jokamiehenoikeudet) allowing everyone to freely forage in public forests. Berries pop up in a variety of desserts or are used as an accompaniment to savory dishes. For example eating cloudberry jam with leipäjuusto, or lingonberry jam with mustamakkara.

Common Finnish berries are:

1. Lingonberries

2. Bilberries (wild blueberries)

3. Cloudberries (these have a mild, apricoty flavor and are rare outside nordic countries)

4. Sea Buckthorn (a delightfully tart little orange berry)

5. Wild Strawberries

6. Raspberries

7. Cranberries
   

Meats: Game, Sausages, and Pork

While you'll find all the regular trappings of commercially available meat, Finland does also have a wide range of game meats. If you visit as a tourist, it seems like game meat is everywhere, though eating it in the home may not be as common as you'd think. Reindeer for example is all over in the tourist restaurants, but is also very expensive and may be more of a "treat meat". You can also find moose, bear, elk, deer, hare, duck, and grouse. It's all quite flavorful, and is eaten all kinds of different ways. (Bear salami, salted and dried reindeer meat, etc.) The most popular meat preparation in Finland by far though is sausages, or makkara. They make sausages all kinds of ways for all kinds of occasions. The most common Finnish sausage is nakki, which is similar to a hot dog but has a unique spice palette. It's got warm notes of allspice and nutmeg in it One uniquely delicious Finnish makkara is a specialty made in Tampere. This sausage was on my "foodie bucket list" and was one of the main reasons I went to Tampere: mustamakkara. Blood sausage. Mustamakkara contains pork and pig's blood, and has a bunch of rye groats in it giving it a nice texture. It is fried or grilled and is served with lingonberry jam, and usually milk. It's really not irony at all like most blood foods, and is a tasty savory treat. Speaking of pork products, pork is probably your most common Finnish meat ingredient. Historically, pigs survived well in the climate and were a reliable and affordable source of protein. Beef is second most common, with other meats being readily available but perhaps less prominent in traditionally Finnish recipes.

Root Vegetables

You may have noticed a pattern in some of these descriptions in that many ingredients were able to "survive the harsh conditions" of Finland. Well that is also true of root vegetables. The most important and iconic of these is the humble potato. Finns love potatoes. ESPECIALLY new potatoes, which you'll find all over in restaurants. When I started learning a little Finnish for a trip I took to Helsinki, one of the vocab words was "uudet perunat" which means "new potatoes". I thought that was so specific and weird, until I got there and saw "uudet perunat" everywhere. The potato really is the star here, but other common root veggies are beets, carrots, sunchokes, turnips, and rutabagas.

Mushrooms

Similar to berries, mushrooms are freely foraged in public forests.

Several species are particularly prized by Finnish mushroom enthusiasts:

1. Chanterelle - arguably the most popular and delicious

2. Funnel Chanterelle - a later season chantaerelle with more intense flavor

3. Porcini - the porcini is prized for its rich, nutty flavor and meaty texture
   

My Finnish mushroom knowledge is limited to a single tour I once took where they served us foraged mushroom soup. Though, I know slightly more about the use of mushrooms in cooking. For one, they fit so well into the broader palette of Finnish cuisine. Mushrooms pair well with dairy and meats, and are often best when simply sauteed in butter. It's easy to see how they fit on the Finnish plate.

Pickles

Pickling is a common practice in Finland, with a long history of preserving various vegetables to enjoy throughout the year, especially during the long winter months. They make especially great salty dill pickles, and you can pick out all kinds of pickles in huge vats in Finnish supermarkets. Besides cucumbers, pickled beet is also very common and is used it delicious cold salads like rosolli. Fish is also pickled in Finland, usually herring. As is the function of most pickles in cuisines, they provide a nice contrast and crunchy punch to a variety of dishes. One of my favorite combinations is sauteed reindeer with a side of lingonberry and pickle. Get a little of everything on your fork, and BAM, delicious. Licorice & Salmiakki

Yes, it's true. The Finns love their black licorice. There are so many types of licorice candies and licorice flavored products in Finland, the most popular being soft black licorice. However, Finnish licorice doesn't have as much of an anise flavor as some of the terrible products we have in the US. Sure, it's there, but it's definitely more of a licorice root flavor, which IS different. The most polarzing licorice is the infamous salmiakki. Salted licorice. Salmiakki is characterized by its strong, salty, and slightly bitter taste. This comes from the addition of ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl), also known as sal ammoniac, which gives it a unique "salty licorice" flavor that's quite different from sweet licorice. It's not for everyone but if you love it... you LOVE it. (I am one of those people) Salmiakki flavors a variety of other products in Finalnd like booze and ice creams. The Fazer salmiakki diamond bar is truly a delightful flavor exploration.

Hopefully this has shed a little light on the underrated cuisine and flavor palette of Finland. In my exploration to understand Finnish cooking and flavors, I have sifted through a variety of resources. If you are interested in learning more, I suggest these: Finnish Your Plate - a handy YouTube channel for non-Finns looking for reliable Finnish cooking info Natural Cooking the Finnish Way - an old school book of a Finnish-American woman cataloguing her family's recipes Both of these sources are helpful for non-native Finns! I have experimented with translating and working through Finnish recipes IN Finnish, but it is much easier to start with these!