The Karelian hot pot (British) or Karelian stew (US) ( fi, karjalanpaisti; russian: рагу по-карельски ''ragu po-karelski''; sv, karelsk stek) is a traditional meat

stew A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. A stew needs to have raw ingredients added to the gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables a ...

originating from the region of

Karelia Karelia ( Karelian and fi, Karjala, ; rus, Каре́лия, links=y, r=Karélija, p=kɐˈrʲelʲɪjə, historically ''Korjela''; sv, Karelen), the land of the Karelian people, is an area in Northern Europe of historical significance fo ...

. It is commonly prepared using a combination of

pork Pork is the culinary name for the meat of the domestic pig (''Sus domesticus''). It is the most commonly consumed meat worldwide, with evidence of pig husbandry dating back to 5000 BCE. Pork is eaten both freshly cooked and preserved ...

and

beef Beef is the culinary name for meat from cattle (''Bos taurus''). In prehistoric times, humankind hunted aurochs and later domesticated them. Since that time, numerous breeds of cattle have been bred specifically for the quality or quantit ...

, but elk or

lamb Lamb or The Lamb may refer to: * A young sheep * Lamb and mutton, the meat of sheep Arts and media Film, television, and theatre * ''The Lamb'' (1915 film), a silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks Sr. in his screen debut * ''The Lamb'' (1918 ...

can also be used. Along with the

Karelian pasties Karelian pasties, Karelian pies or Karelian pirogs ( krl, kalittoja, singular ''kalitta''; Olonets Karelian: ''šipainiekku''; fi, karjalanpiirakat, singular ''karjalanpiirakka''; russian: карельский пирожок ''karelskiy pirozhok ...

(''karjalanpiirakat''), it is the most widely recognised Karelian food in Finland. In 2007, it was selected as the national dish of Finland by the readers of the Finnish tabloid Iltalehti. In similar poll organized by the ELO Foundation for the Promotion of Finnish Food Culture in cooperation with the Central Union of Agricultural Producers and Forest Owners MTK and the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in autumn 2016, Karelian hot pot took second place, losing to

rye bread Rye bread is a type of bread made with various proportions of flour from rye grain. It can be light or dark in color, depending on the type of flour used and the addition of coloring agents, and is typically denser than bread made from wheat ...

. The hot pot is usually seasoned with

black pepper Black pepper (''Piper nigrum'') is a flowering vine in the family Piperaceae, cultivated for its fruit, known as a peppercorn, which is usually dried and used as a spice and seasoning. The fruit is a drupe (stonefruit) which is about in dia ...

corns and

salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...

. Other seasonings such as

allspice Allspice, also known as Jamaica pepper, myrtle pepper, pimenta, or pimento, is the dried unripe berry of ''Pimenta dioica'', a midcanopy tree native to the Greater Antilles, southern Mexico, and Central America, now cultivated in many warm par ...

and

bay leaf The bay leaf is an aromatic leaf commonly used in cooking. It can be used whole, either dried or fresh, in which case it is removed from the dish before consumption, or less commonly used in ground form. It may come from several species of tr ...

may be used too. Common vegetables such as

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', na ...

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus '' Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the on ...

, and

root vegetable Root vegetables are underground plant parts eaten by humans as food. Although botany distinguishes true roots (such as taproots and tuberous roots) from non-roots (such as bulbs, corms, rhizomes, and tubers, although some contain both hypocoty ...

s are acceptable additions to the stew. Like most other Karelian foods, the Karelian hot pot is traditionally braised (cooked in a pot (''uuniruukku'' or ''potti'' in Finnish) placed inside an oven). In Karelia, it is usually referred to as merely 'oven stew' (''uunipaisti''). The term Karelian hot pot can be used to refer to nearly any food that contains meat and that is prepared in this traditional Karelian fashion. Due to the scarceness of meat in the past, the hot pot was traditionally only prepared for festive occasions. As meat became more readily available during the 20th century, the dish became a common, everyday food throughout Finland.

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Finnish stews Karelia National dishes {{finland-cuisine-stub

See also

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