Recipes from Finland

Appears in

Published 1980

About

Most countries with a coastline can count a hundred or several hundred species of sea fish in their waters. Not so Finland, which has barely a dozen. The waters in the recesses of the Baltic, where Finland is, are so low in salinity that few sea fish can tolerate them. However, there is some compensation. Freshwater species can come out into and be caught in the sea. This is confusing for writers on seafood. Are they seafood or are they not? It suits me to include some of them here, so I have.

Baltic herring dominate the Finnish catch. Proportions by weight in a recent year were: Baltic herring 73; vendace 9; whitefish 3; sprat 1; salmon 0.7. Cod and flatfish are so few that they barely swim their way into the statistics. So, as in the other Baltic countries, the preparation of herring is an important part of the cuisine; and on some parts of the coast, as I mentioned, may be treated as a qualification for marriage. Aspiring brides no doubt swot up Silakka, a book containing 145 herring recipes and written, significantly, by a professor of theology.