Finnish Cuisine - Characteristics

Characteristics

In former times, the country's harsh climate meant that fresh fruit and vegetables were largely unavailable for nine months of the year, leading to a heavy reliance on staple tubers (initially turnip, later potato), dark rye bread and fermented dairy products, occasionally enlivened with preserved fish and meat. Traditionally, very few spices other than salt were available, and fresh herbs like dill were limited to the summer months. Many Finnish traditional dishes are prepared by stewing them for a long time in an oven, which produces hearty but bland fare. Forests and lakes were a major source of food and today produce from forests counts for the distinctive traits in Finnish cuisine. The simplicity of traditional Finnish food has been turned into an advantage by placing an emphasis on freshness instead, and modern Finnish restaurateurs now blend high-quality Finnish produce with continental cooking techniques, culminating with Helsinki's Chez Dominique receiving two Michelin stars in 2003.

Internationalization brought imported goods and pasta, pizza and hamburgers were integrated into Finnish menus, thus replacing many traditional everyday dishes, such as cabbage casserole or herring fillets which were considered inferior. During the 20th century also, the majority of Finnish women entered the workforce, and most of the dishes requiring long preparation time were reserved for holidays.

Even with modern agriculture and transportation, food is expensive in Finland compared to other European countries, notwithstanding the effect of accession to the European Union in 1995 and the consequent elimination of trade barriers, with prices of some products like grains, meat and milk dropping by up to 50%. Before that, heavy taxes and outright bans on imports that competed with local produce severely limited the availability of foreign or unseasonal food, but now Finnish supermarkets and restaurants serve up a wide variety of food from all over the world.

Finnish cuisine is very similar to Swedish cuisine. The overarching difference is the preference for unsweetened foods. For example, while traditional Swedish rye bread includes plenty of syrup and spices, Finnish rye bread is unsweetened and even bitter. Finnish cuisine also bears some resemblance to German and Russian cuisines. For example, sausages and buttered bread (like Butterbrot), and kiisseli (kissel) and karjalanpiirakka (cf. pirozhki) are similar to their German and Russian counterparts, respectively.