Mojakka is a
fish soup
Fish soup is a food made by combining fish or seafood with vegetables and stock, juice, water, or another liquid. Hot soups are additionally characterized by boiling solid ingredients in liquids in a pot until the flavors are extracted, forming a ...
originating in the region of
Kalajoki
Kalajoki (; literally translated the "fish river") is a coastal town and municipality of Finland. It is located in the immediate vicinity of the Gulf of Bothnia in the province of Oulu and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region.
The town has ...
, Finland.
In its original form in
Finland
Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...
, mojakka contains
whitefish or
baltic herring
Atlantic herring (''Clupea harengus'') is a herring in the family Clupeidae. It is one of the most abundant fish species in the world. Atlantic herrings can be found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, congregating in large schools. They can ...
, butter, salt,
whitewash
Whitewash, or calcimine, kalsomine, calsomine, or lime paint is a type of paint made from slaked lime ( calcium hydroxide, Ca(OH)2) or chalk calcium carbonate, (CaCO3), sometimes known as "whiting". Various other additives are sometimes used ...
(a flour and water mixture for thickening), and onions. No potatoes or other vegetables are added, but Finnish immigrants to the U.S. and Canada created recipes for beef or
venison
Venison originally meant the meat of a game animal but now refers primarily to the meat of antlered ungulates such as elk or deer (or antelope in South Africa). Venison can be used to refer to any part of the animal, so long as it is edible, in ...
stews that they called ''mojakkas''. As a result, the fish version came to be called ''kalamojakka.''
Mojakka was originally made by fishermen working in the
Gulf of Bothnia
The Gulf of Bothnia (; fi, Pohjanlahti; sv, Bottniska viken) is divided into the Bothnian Bay and Bothnian Sea, and it is the northernmost arm of the Baltic Sea, between Finland's west coast ( East Bothnia) and the Sweden's east coast (West ...
. They cooked it over fires at fishing camps during their midday breaks between pulling and setting nets at sea. As a matter of pride, the fishermen ate only the fish they themselves caught.
The word ''mojakka'' in
Finnish
Finnish may refer to:
* Something or someone from, or related to Finland
* Culture of Finland
* Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland
* Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people
* Finnish cuisine
See also ...
means "cold wind" or "to feel cold" (from ''mojo'' or ''mojakka'' "cold wind; noise", ''mojottaa'' "feel cold") as explained by Eino Koponen in the "''Etymology of Baltic-Finnish Meteorological Terms" by Lauri Hakulinen.
References
Virittaja
{{{dead link, date=January 2023, bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes
American cuisine
Finnish cuisine
Fish and seafood soups