Karelian pasties, Karelian pies or Karelian pirogs ( krl, kalittoja, singular ''kalitta''; Olonets Karelian: ''šipainiekku''; fi, karjalanpiirakat, singular ''karjalanpiirakka''; russian: карельский пирожок ''karelskiy pirozhok'' or калитка ''kalitka''; sv, karelska piroger) are traditional

pasties Pasties (singular pasty or pastie) are patches that cover a person's nipples and areolae, typically self-adhesive or affixed with adhesive. They originated as part of burlesque shows, providing a commercial form of bare-breasted entertainment. T ...

pirog Pirog ( rus, пиро́г, p=pʲɪˈrok, a=Ru-пирог.ogg, pl. ''pirogi'' пироги ; be, піро́г; se, pirog; lv, pīrāgs, pl. ''pīrāgi''; uk, пиріг ''pyrih'', pl. ''pyrohy'' пироги; lt, pyragas, pl. ''pyragai''; ...

s originating from the region of Karelia. They are eaten throughout

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 ...

as well as in adjacent areas such as

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and

northern Russia Russian North (russian: Русский Север) is an ethnocultural region situated in the northwestern part of Russia. It spans the regions of Arkhangelsk Oblast, the Republic of Karelia, Komi Republic, Vologda Oblast and Nenets Autonomous ...

. The oldest traditional pasties usually had a rye crust, but the North Karelian and

Ladoga Karelia Ladoga Karelia ( fi, Laatokan Karjala, russian: Ладожская Карелия, Ladožskaja Karelija, Карельское Приладожье, ''Karelskoje Priladožje'' or Северное Приладожье, ''Severnoje Priladožje'') is a ...

n variants also contained

wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...

to improve the quality of the crust. The usual fillings were

barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...

and

talkkuna Kama (in Estonian) or talkkuna (in Finnish) or tolokno (in Russian: толокно), talqan (in Turkic languages) is a traditional Estonian, Finnish, Russian, Turkic finely milled flour mixture. The kama or talkkuna powder is a mixture of roa ...

. In the 19th century, first

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

, and then

buckwheat Buckwheat (''Fagopyrum esculentum''), or common buckwheat, is a flowering plant in the knotweed family Polygonaceae cultivated for its grain-like seeds and as a cover crop. The name "buckwheat" is used for several other species, such as ''Fagopy ...

were introduced as fillings, and later, boiled

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...

and millet. Today, the most popular version has a thin rye crust with a filling of rice. Mashed potato and rice-and-carrot fillings are also commonly available. Butter, often mixed with chopped-up boiled egg (

egg butter Egg butter (, , ) is a mixture of butter and chopped hard boiled eggs. It is a well known spread in Finnish cuisine and Estonian cuisine. In Finland, egg butter is typically spread over hot Karelian pasties. In Estonia, egg butter and ''leib'' ...

or ''munavoi''), is spread over the hot pasties before eating. Karjalanpiirakka has had Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status in Europe since 2003.EU Profile-Karjalanpiirakka
(accessed 06/01/2021) This means that any producer not following the traditional recipe cannot call them ''karjalanpiirakka'' and instead, will have to call them ''riisipiirakka'' ("rice pasties"), ''perunapiirakka'' ("potato pasties") etc., depending on the filling.Food Safety Authority Evira
(accessed 1/19/2016)

References

External links

* Karelian pasties recipe at

Wikibooks Wikibooks (previously called ''Wikimedia Free Textbook Project'' and ''Wikimedia-Textbooks'') is a wiki-based Wikimedia project hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation for the creation of free content digital textbooks and annotated texts that an ...

Cookbook Finnish cuisine Estonian cuisine Russian cuisine Karelia Traditional Speciality Guaranteed products from Finland Rye-based dishes Savoury pies {{russia-cuisine-stub

See also

References

External links