The main nutrients were corn products, meat and fish.Most of the daily nourishment was received from corn products: porridge and
bread. Porridge was usually made out of grain that has been ground coarse and might even
have been made more substantial by adding meat or fat into it. During the hard times seeds
of wild plants, lichens or pettu supplemented porridge and bread.
Meat from domestic animals or game was eaten boiled, roasted, dried,
smoked and especially salted. Sausages were made, too. It was not easy to prevent the meat
from going bad, but by using a lot of spices the unpleasant odour and taste could be
avoided. Spices and salt were used rather abundantly after their arrival in the North
through trade with the Hanseatic League in the 13th Century. However, spices
and salt were expensive and not everybody could afford them.
Fish was eaten considerably more in the Middle Ages than nowadays
for example because the church allowed fish eating during fasts, which were plenty during
a catholic canonical year. The fish preserved well when it was dried or salted and they
could even be eaten uncooked. Soaking in lye solution is a medieval way to preserve.
Milk was obtained from cows, goats and sheep. The amount of domestic
animals was small and production modest. Trying to preserve the milk was a problem. Milk
was often left to turn sour and from this sour milk people made cottage cheese by letting
it dry. Sour cream was churned into butter that preserved better when it was salted. The
most common edible roots and vegetables were onions, swedes, turnips, cabbages, peas,
beans and parsnips. Many cultivated or gathered herbs functioned as not only spices but
also as medicines.
Recipes:
Boiled Pea-pods
The pea-pods should already be full size but their hull should still
be soft enough.
Ingredients:
Fresh pea-pods
Water
Salt
Butter
Preparation:
Boil the whole pea-pods in salted water until they become soft.
Serve hot with some melted butter. Dip the pea-pod into the melted butter and suck; pull
the peas out of the soft hull with your teeth.
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Egg cheese
Ingredients:
3 parts of milk
1 part of sour milk
1 egg per milk litre
½ tea spoons of salt per milk litre
Preparation:
Heat up the milk until it is nearly brought to the boil.
Mix the eggs and the sour milk and pour them into the hot milk.
When the mixture has curdled, pour it through a strainer.
Add salt and mix it well.
Cover the cheese circle with a clean and moistened gauze.
Pour the curd into it.
Wrap the gauze around the curd and place a light weight onto it.
Let it cool and serve.
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Turnip Bread
Ingredients:
3 litres of turnip chunks
1 litre water
2 tea spoons of salt
2 kilos of barley flour
Preparation:
Boil the turnip and crush the soft chunks.
Add the boiling water and salt into the crushed chunks.
Mix with flour until the dough is firm and bake thin pieces of bread.
Bake the pieces of bread quickly in a hot oven.
Serve hot with butter.
You can also make the pieces of bread only with the barley flour.
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Pearl barley
porridge
3 litres of milk or water
½ litres of pearl barley
2 tea spoons of salt
Preparation:
Boil a drop of water in a kettle and add milk. If you don’t want to use milk, just
boil the water.
Add the pearl barley into the boiling liquid. Boil them 5-6 hours and add salt. If you use
milk, add salt only in the very end.
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Rye porridge
9 decilitres of water
1 tea spoon of salt
3 decilitres of rye-flour
Jam, honey
Boil water and add salt.
Whisk the flour in little by little.
Boil under the lid about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally.
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Blueberry
porridge
Ingredients:
1 ½ litres of water
½ tea spoons of salt
4-5 decilitres of barley flour
1-2 litres of blueberries
Honey
Preparation:
Mix the flour in the boiling salt water.
Leave the porridge soft-boiled.
Stew the porridge. (Ca 30 minutes)
Add blueberries and honey.
Let the porridge cool off and serve with milk.
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Salt fish
Ingredients:
1 kilo of lavaret
1 decilitre of coarse salt
Ground (white) pepper
Dill
Preparation:
Tenderloin the fish.
Prepare the spice mixture and spread it onto the tenderloins.
Pack the tenderloins tight and place them into the cold for the night.
The fish will be ready in twenty-four hours.
Slice the fish into thin slices and eat for example with bread.
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Roast pot
Ingredients:
1 part of beef (include bones and fat)
1 part of pork (include bones and fat)
1 part of venison or mutton (include bones and fat)
Large onions
Entire pieces of allspice
Salt
Water
Preparation:
Cut the meat into rather large chunks and place them in a pot.
Add spices and onion chunks.
Pour some water on the meat.
Mature.
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Hautio
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