Custom Search
|
Custom Search
|
MEAT-PIE-4 - Rye bread pie with fish and pork filling
This is an ancient national food prepared and eaten in Savo
(eastern Finland).
FILLING
1 kg small fish
0.75 kg pork, sliced into strips like bacon, but about 0.5
to 1 cm thick.
50 g salt (omit salt if pork is already salted)
allspice (optional. Traditionalists omit this)
DOUGH
600 ml water
300 g rye flour (800 ml)
200 g wheat flour (400 ml)
20 g salt
10 g yeast (2 standard packages)
(1) Clean the fish, removing fins, large scales, and
entrails. You may leave the heads if you dare to
eat them.
(2) Mix the flours, and salt. Add the yeast to the
water.
(3) When the yeast is fully dissolved, make a thick
dough by pouring flour mixture into water and
blending well. The ratio of flour to water
depends on the nature of the flours. This ratio of
1:2 by volume works well in Finland with Finnish
flours. Where flours contain more gluten you
should use slightly less water.
(4) Set aside 5 cl of dough to be used later. Roll
out the remaining dough into a circular shape 2 cm
thick.
(5) Assemble the meats into the dough: cover the inner
half of the dough circle with half of the pork
(the pork should cover a circle whose diameter is
half the diameter of the rolled dough). Then put
all of the fish over top of the pork, and add
allspice and extra salt if you are using them.
Finish with the second half of the pork.
(6) Preheat oven to 250 deg. C. Lift the edges of the
dough all around the filling and glue together
with a little water so that you have the filling
surrounded from all directions with 2-cm-thick
dough. Put upside down (the seam downwards) on a
baking sheet and let it rise about half an hour at
room temperature.
(7) Put the kalakukko in a 250 deg. C oven for long
enough to brown the dough, which will seal it
against moisture. Then lower the temperature to
about 125 deg. C and let it bake for 4 to 7 hours
depending on the size of the fish (bigger fish
need more cooking time). You can brush some
melted butter over the top of the dough just after
lowering the temperature; this will give it a
prettier appearance. If it starts to leak while
baking, fill holes with the dough which was set
aside.
(8) Serve hot or cold.
Kalakukko was used as travelers food because it stays edible
very long when unopened. Also in medieval times salt was the
only way to preserve meat and it was expensive, so with this
way you could use all the salt in salt pork. The word kala-
kukko means fish-cock (the bird).
You can use any small fish (shorter than 20 cm). Small
scales and spikes don't matter because they soften during
the prolonged cooking. Make sure you use unsmoked pork.
Difficulty: moderate (some skill with dough is required).
Time: 45 minutes preparation, 30 minutes attended baking, 4-
7 hours unattended baking. Precision: Careful measurement
not necessary, but the consistency of the dough (which will
depend on the nature of your flours) is important. If the
dough is either too soft or too hard, the kalakukko will
leak.
Heikki Putkonen
University of Oulu, Finland
putko@tolsun.oulu.fi
| Last modified: 9 May 2006 | 1 hits in May 2012 |
