Finnish Cuisine

Finnish cuisine is notable for generally combining traditional country fare and haute cuisine with contemporary continental-style cooking.

Many Finnish traditional dishes are prepared by stewing them for a long time in an oven, which produces hearty but bland fare.

Evacuees from Karelia contributed to foods in other parts of Finland in the aftermath of the Continuation War.

Finnish foods often use wholemeal products (rye, barley, oats) and berries (such as bilberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, and sea buckthorn).

Finnish foods often use wholemeal products (rye, barley, oats) and berries (such as bilberries, lingonberries, cloudberries, and sea buckthorn).

Rolled oats, rye or multi-grain porridge are most common.

There are many styles of pickled herring which is a common appetizer and also served around Midsummer accompanied by small potatoes called uusiperuna (nypotatis in Swedish) which means 'new potato', usually the first harvests of potato.

Fish and meat (usually pork, beef or reindeer) play a prominent role in traditional Finnish dishes in some parts of the country, while the dishes elsewhere have traditionally included various vegetables and mushrooms.

Salmon is a popular choice, both as kylmäsavustettu lohi: cold smoked salmon, lox, or served raw with lemon juice as graavilohi (gravlax in Swedish).

Numerous methods of preparing fish are used, including frying, boiling, drying, salting, fermenting, cold smoking or simply slicing sea fish and eating it raw.