Sautéed reindeer ( , , , ) is perhaps the best known traditional meal from

Sápmi is the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Sámi people. Sápmi includes the northern parts of Fennoscandia, stretching over four countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia. Most of Sápmi lies north of the Arctic Circle, boun ...

in Finland, Sweden, Norway and Russia and Sakha. Usually steak or the back of the

reindeer The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, taiga, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only re ...

is used. It is sliced thinly (usually while the meat is still frozen so that it is easier to cut through), fried in fat (traditionally in reindeer fat, but butter and oil are more common nowadays), and spiced with

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

and

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

. Finally, some water, cream, or beer is added, and it is cooked until tender. The dish is served with mashed potatoes and

lingonberry ''Vaccinium vitis-idaea'' is a small evergreen shrub in the heath family, Ericaceae. It is known colloquially as the lingonberry, partridgeberry, foxberry, mountain cranberry, or cowberry. It is native to boreal forest and Arctic tundra through ...

preserves or, more traditionally, with raw lingonberries mashed with sugar. In Finland, the meat is often served with

pickled cucumber A pickled cucumber – commonly known as a pickle in the United States, Canada and Australia and a gherkin ( ) in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, and New Zealand – is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been Pickling, pickled in ...

, which is not as common in Sweden.

References

External links

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A fairly traditional recipe
Meat dishes Reindeer Finnish cuisine National dishes Sámi cuisine Yakut cuisine Swedish cuisine Norwegian cuisine Russian cuisine {{Siberia-cuisine-stub