Kalakukko - something from Finland

The main ingredients needed are rye flour, fishfillets and some fatty pork meat

The other day I had an idea that I should prepare something traditional Finnish to share with you. Out of nowhere I thought of Kalakukko. I have only made it once before, in the cooking school. We used the recipe of my teacher's grandma and that recipe I also used this time.

Kalakukko is "bread" with fish and pork filling or even better fish and pork baked in a rye crust. It  originates from the area of Savo in Finland. The crust is made of rye flour, water and salt. Some people also add some wheat flout to make the dough better formable. When it comes to the filling the people are divided. Some state that the fish used for the original kalakukko should be muikku/vendace while the others prefer to use ahven/perch. It's also possible to find kalakukko made of potatos or rutabaga. I wanted to make my kalakukko with vendace but unfortunately I can't buy them here so I ended up with perch.

Basically all you need is rye flour, water, salt, fish fillets, pork (bacon or pork belly) and a tiny bit rice to absorb the liquid. Obviously, if you use bacon, you don't need as much salt. The whole process is very easy as you can see from the following pictures. First you have to mix rye flour and salt with some water so that you get a firm dough which you can roll with a rolling pin without it sticking to the table surface. I had about 500 grams flour and I estimated the amount water. Fish I had bought 500 grams and the amount of pork I needed must have been something close to 400 grams.

Place the fishfilletes on the middle of the rolled dough. Between each layer of fish you should sprinkle some salt and a little rice which will absorb the extra liquid

On top of the fish place the pork slices

Fold the rim of the dough on the top of the fish. Just cut some of the dough away, if you have too much. Use a knife and some water to smoothen the surface. It should look like bread when it's ready

After the kalakukko is formed you have to bake it in 250 C for about half an hour to form a hard crust. Then it will be wrapped into a foil and baked in 120 C for about 3 1/2 hours. So as you can see it's not exactly fast food :D

Bake alltogether 4 hours

Ready to be eaten

My kalakukko turned our very good and tasty. I like it best cutted in slices and with some butter on top. For me it has to be warm enough so that the butter starts to melt but you can also eat it cold. Some people claim that Kalakukko shouldn't be cut in slices but opended up from the top instead but I find that funny.

Yummy!  I like to eat kalakukko warm with some butter.