If you ask a Fin, what is typical Finnish food you probably get Karjalainen piirakka (savory rice pastry) and Karjalainen paisti (beef and pork stew) as an answer. Finnish cookbooks often focus on historical food or very modern trends, not to mention they are in Finnish. Which makes them a tiny bit inaccessible to foreigners despite Google translate. Finnish food has much to offer, and many foreigners are interested in discovering that treasure.

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The focus of this blog is on what people really eat at home, school, workplace or in non-fancy restaurants. Or food where a Finn gets into “ah yes we used to eat this on this or that day” nostalgia. We collect here typical home food basically of the last 100 years and try to enrich it with historical, cultural and personal stories. I added some dishes, I heard some Fins getting nostalgic about, even if I am not sure, that they hit the main-stream taste or get non-Fins excited, but on the other hand not all French cheese types are fully appreciated by non French people.

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The food we describe here many of it you will not find in fancy Helsinki restaurants, but maybe at a lunch place in the countryside or some old-style cafe or at somebodies’ home. In Finnish it’s called “kotiruoka” or home-food. I added also some recent newcomers to the Finnish homes, because today’s newcomers will be tomorrow’s childhood food and food culture evolves constantly. If you want to really dive deeply into Finnish food culture, I recommend the book of Ritva Kylli “Suomen Ruokahistoria” which is a history book and not a cookbook. Here we take the approach of “edible Finnish Food history” in English and hope you enjoy cooking through history and I hope that also Fins discover some new things about their cuisine. If you are in Helsinki then the Hotel and Restaurant Museum might be interesting (https://hotellijaravintolamuseo.fi/en/).

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Food is always a mirror of the natural, culture and political situation, Finnish food is no exception here. The Finnish cuisine is strongly influenced by the Swedish cuisine but has its own recognizable dishes. The regions have their own specialities, in particular when it comes to baking there are quite some differences between Eastern and Western Finland. Culinary wise, Finland can be divided in three large regions East, West and Lapland.

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Many of the recipes collected here have some background or history that might be obvious to Finns but is new to people that did not grew up in Finland. I hope to tempt non-Fins to try some dishes and for Fins to recognize that their cuisine has a bit more to offer then the two obvious dishes and discover their cuisine and food culture.