Karelian Cuisine

What you learned in youth you won’t forget in the old age

Karelia is located in the northern part of Russia. Our region is famous all over the world for its numerous lakes and picturesque landscape around them. Our lakes are rich in fish such as carp, pike, bream, sheat fish, perch, trout plaice, herring, vendace and salmon.

• Fish is the main food in Karelia. That's why there is a wide choice of fish dishes on the menu of nearly every restaurant. You can have boiled pikeperch Polish style, fried bream, and steamed sturgeon.
• Among fish snacks one can choose pressed caviar, humpback, sturgeon in aspic, sprats or sardines in oil, herring and vegetables. Vendace Karelian style and stuffed pike are consi-dered beyond any comparison.
• As for the first course

you may order fish soup

made of burbot and

small fry.

Karelian Ryapushka

• Put cleaned and washed fish into

a deep pan. Then put cut potatoes on the fish and add bay leaves, pepper and onion. Salt. Put cold water into the pan to cover all products. Start boiling. When water has boiled reduce fire and add a little oil. The fish has to boil during 30-40 min.

• This dish is eaten cold or hot.

Rybnik

• Rybnik or Karelian pie is an old Karelian dish of northern Karelians. Roll a square small cake from bread bough. Put cleaned and washed fish (small fish- whole, big fish – in pieces) in the middle of it. Earlier they add pieces of pork and mutton there.
• Nowadays you can cook without them.
• On the top of the cake put little rye bough.
• Edges of the cake turn up and pinch (look at the picture).

Skancy

• Skancy – a traditional holiday dish.
• Nowadays it’s nearly forgotten.
• Earlier scancy were burned on coals, now we use pans.
• They are made from rye or barley flour. Make dense bough on water, milk or sour milk and salt lightly. Roll thin small cakes from it( how for kalitki). Karelians said that a good skanec had to fly over the table if you blew on it.
• Smear burned scancy with butter and put them in a pile.
• During the dinner you can put porridge into the scancy and make a tube from them.
• Eat scancy with sour cream, hot butter. Drink cold milk with them.
• Karelians divided one scanec into two parts not to look like a greedy man.

Pies for son- in- law

Karelian pancakes

• Traditionally they were cooked to treat sons-in-law. Nowadays pancakes become everyday food.
• Pancakes need six parts: flour, sour cream, milk, water and stuffing.
• Southern Karelians made pancakes from oats flour, but northern Karelians – from barley flour. During Lent they cooked pancakes on oil.
• Sometimes bough was made on milk, sour milk,

but usually on water, without salt. It was watery.

• Pancakes were thin and burned on coals.
• Ready pancakes were put on the table in a pile

or like triangles.

Karelian cake “Hundred-year”

• To make this cake you need 13 cookies.
• For cookies: 1 glass of sour cream,

1 egg, 1 glass of sugar,

1 tea spoon of cooking soda,

salt (to you taste)

• Make dense dough. Roll it into a braid form and divide into 13 parts. Roll every part into a thin skanec (size of a big plate) and burn in an oven.
• For cream: 1 glass of sour cream mix with one glass of sugar.
• Smear ready cookies with cream and red bilberry or cranberry jam and put them in a pile.
• Cover the ready cake with parchment, put a load on the top of it and wait for a night.

Karelia is famous for its pies, which were baked here earlier and remain popular nowadays. They are open pies baked of rye flour stuffed with cereals or mashed potatoes the so-called cheese cakes or open pies with berry filling. Don't fail to taste them. They are very delicious.

Karelian woods are rich in berries and mushrooms. That's why specialties of Karelian Cuisine include them in abundance for instance special mushroom soup made of mushrooms, brown onions, potatoes and pearl barley. As for drinks you can be offered berry beverages (drinks).