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The Baltic Sea (Läänemeri) is not very rich in fish species. Estonians live by the sea and have always caught fish. European sprat or Baltic herring, also known as brisling or skipper (kilu), is a small marine fish. Another variety of Baltic herring is bigger and called räim. Estonians had already begun to salt both of them centuries ago. For people living on the coast or islands these fish have been an important source of food because the fields there are stony and soils poor.

For vürtsikilu a special mix of spices is used. Tallinn has even been named as Kilutown.
Kilu is also smked and preserved in oil, this food is called sprotid.

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When introducing the Finnish food culture there is basically two narratives one can choose from - one that underlines the fact that we don’t have a sophisticated traditional foodcultire (like in French, Italy etc.) or the one that sells the idea of high quality and fresh ”superfood” that bonds to the modern and expensive scandic finedining restaurant hype. On the otherhand in Finland most people nowadays can relate to both narratives and same time they are open to all different internatinal food trends. Like in many countries nowadays there seems to be more etnic restaurants in Finland than ”Finnish restautants”.

The things Finland wants to brand their ”food image” includes adjectives as: ”organic, wild, fresh, healthy etc.”  The ingredients we think are our best resources are: wild berries, mushrooms, lakefish, reindeer meet and game meet.

The food I’m about to introduce to you is still nothing from that list (hard to serve them fresh here…). The thing that one can’t pass by if you come in Finland is our national bread: Ruisleipä

(Next quote is from wikipedia article)

Rye bread (ruisleipä or hapanleipä (lit. 'sour bread') in Finnish) is a dark, sour bread produced in quantity in Finland, where it is the most popular type of bread. Compared with the more internationally popular German style, Finnish rye-breads tend to be less oily or moist in texture.

We eat our bread for breakfast, with lunch and dinner and also as evening snack (it is always awailable when there is eating going on…)It is always served with butter or margarine and you can put on top of it for example: cheese, ham, smoked fish, salami pr anynmeat and also vegetables like cucumber, tomato, pepper. Actually one can put on top of it almost anything except  sweet things like marmelade. That would be something totally wrong…. :)

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Schwarzwälder Schinken

After smoking, the Black Forest ham is stored dry for at least 3 months for maturation in special climatic areas. Only in this way does the Black Forest ham get its unmistakable strong aroma, the unmistakable red color and the dry and firm consistency.

Pumpernickel

The heavy, almost black pumpernickel originally comes from Westphalia and is now world famous for its special nature and extraordinary name. However, it is not clear where the name comes from. The name Pumpernickel is surrounded by a wide variety of myths. Some say that a Nikolaus Pumper did it in the 15th Century invented and thus gave its name. Others attribute the title more to the Westphalian words pumper (furt) and nickel (demon), which should give an indication of the bloating effect of pumpernickel. The French, on the other hand, claim that Pumpernickel originated from their vocabulary. Allegedly, Napoleon's horse Nicole liked to eat the black bread so much that "pain pour Nicole" (bread for Nicole) first became a fixed term and later became the basis of the word Pumpernickel.

So there is a dispute about the origin of the word. But not about the clear characteristics that make pumpernickel. At first, the black bread has no crust and is of very firm consistency. Pumpernickel is slightly sweet in taste, but also has a sour note.