Finnish cuisine is quite simple, but hearty and very authentic. It was shaped by the harsh climate, so the main emphasis is on the value of each product, maximum calories and preserving food for the winter. Here are the most famous national dishes:
Fish and seafood
- Kalakukko is a famous fish pie made from rye dough and filled with fish (usually perch, salmon or whitefish) and pork. It takes a long time to bake, but the result is very juicy.
- Graavilohi is lightly salted salmon with dill, served with bread and a mustard-honey sauce.
- Lohikeitto is a creamy soup with salmon and potatoes.
Meat dishes
- Poronkäristys is stewed reindeer meat with mashed potatoes and lingonberry jam. This is perhaps the signature dish of Lapland cuisine.
- Kaalikääryleet — cabbage rolls with minced meat, rice and spices.
- Karjalanpaisti — Karelian roast beef, pork and lamb, slow-cooked in the oven.
Bread and pastries
- Ruisleipä — rye bread, the main symbol of Finnish cuisine. It is eaten daily.
- Karjalanpiirakka (Karelian pies) are flatbread made from rye dough and filled with rice porridge, potatoes or carrots, usually topped with an egg and butter mixture.
- Pulla — sweet buns with cardamom, sometimes with cinnamon or almonds.
Soups and stews
- Hernekeitto — pea soup with smoked pork, traditionally served on Thursdays.
- Mustikkakeitto — sweet blueberry soup (can be served cold or warm).
Desserts and drinks
- Mustikkapiirakka — blueberry pie.
- Vispipuuro — whipped semolina porridge with lingonberry or cranberry juice.
- Glögi — Finnish mulled wine, usually non-alcoholic, with raisins and almonds.
Kalakukko
Kalakukko is, so to speak, the culinary pride of Savo (a region in Eastern Finland). The name sounds exotic, but in reality it is quite simple: ‘kala’ = fish, ‘kukko’ = rooster. Although there is no rooster in it — it is rather an old word meaning ‘pie covered on top’.
What is Kalakukko?
Kalakukko is a large covered rye pie with fish inside, most often perch, whitefish, pike perch or salmon, sometimes with the addition of pork (the fat makes it juicy). All this is simmered for several hours in the oven, and due to the long cooking time, the filling becomes soft and fragrant, and the dough is saturated with the juices of the fish and meat.
Historical context
The dish originated as food for travelling. Finns baked it so that it could be taken with them to the forest or on fishing trips: the pie did not go stale for a long time, and inside it was a complete meat and fish dish. It was considered a kind of ‘working food’ for peasants and fishermen — nutritious, convenient and able to be stored without refrigeration.
How to eat
Kalakukko is usually served warm, although it is also delicious cold.
Milk or sour milk (piimä) is added to it — the combination may seem strange, but in Finland it is a classic.
The pie is cut like bread, into large pieces, with fish and meat inside.
Interesting facts
Kalakukko has the status of an EU Traditional Speciality Guaranteed, meaning that the recipe is recognised as a national treasure. The city of Kuopio (the capital of the Savo region) even hosts Kalakukko festivals, where you can try dozens of variations. In essence, it is not just a pie — it is a kind of ‘19th-century fast food’, only natural and very filling.
More about Finnish cuisine
Finnish cuisine is not overly elaborate, but it does respect basic ingredients. The main feature is that they cook with what nature provides: fish from numerous lakes and the sea, reindeer or elk meat from the forests, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, mushrooms and wild berries, of which there is a huge variety in Finland. Berries are a special topic there — lingonberries, cranberries, blueberries and cloudberries are not only added to desserts, but also become part of main dishes. For example, lingonberry jam is always served with meat.
The second characteristic feature is a love of dairy products. Finns eat cottage cheese, cheese, drink sour milk and kefir-like drinks such as piimä. Even their sweets are often based on milk and cereals, such as whipped porridge vispipuuro. Bread also has a national flavour: it is primarily rye, dense and filling, which can be eaten every day, sometimes with a slightly sour taste.
Finns love stewed dishes and slow-baked goods, so things like Karelian pies or kalakukko are not a coincidence, but a reflection of the tradition of cooking food so that it keeps for a long time and is filling. Finnish cuisine also has its own northern peculiarities — combinations that seem strange to southerners, such as meat with berry sauces or milk with fish pie. But it is precisely these unexpected contrasts that make it so appealing.
Finnish restaurant prices
Eating out in Finland is not cheap, and this is something to bear in mind when planning your trip. The most affordable option is fast food or simple snack bars, where lunch will cost around ten to fifteen euros, and a combo meal at McDonald’s costs around ten euros. Slightly more expensive, but still affordable for the country, are weekday lunch buffets, which cost an average of eleven to fifteen euros in large cities and include a hot dish, side dish and drinks. These are the lunches that many Finns prefer on working days.
If you go to a regular restaurant without fine dining pretensions, the bill for one dish and a drink can easily reach €20–30, and a full dinner with several courses will cost €30–50 per person. Dinner for two in a mid-range restaurant with three courses and drinks will cost around eighty euros. Prices in Helsinki and tourist areas are significantly higher than in the countryside. Overall, Finnish cuisine is delicious and authentic, but you will have to pay significantly more for the pleasure than, for example, in Eastern Europe.
- A budget lunch in a snack bar costs around €10–15.
- A lunch buffet (average price) costs €11–15.
- A typical lunch in a mid-range restaurant costs €17–30, and a full dinner with several courses costs €30–50 per person.
- Dinner for two (three courses) costs around €80.
- Fast food (combo) — around €10.