Customer Reviews

Finnish Cookbook (International Cookbook Series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
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I first visited Finland over 10 years ago and while I was there, I sampled a lot of the unique Finnish cuisine. Unfortunately, when I returned home, I couldn't find any recipes in any books for dishes such as the Karelian Rice Piirakkaa, spinach pancakes or a vegetable filled meat ring I had tasted while I was there. It wasn't until a few years ago that I found this book and it contained all of the recipes that I had been looking for and so many more:) Beatrice Ojakangas is the queen of recipe books in my opinion. Her personal anecdotes and background information is invaluable to anyone who wants to know more about Finland and Finnish cooking. I very highly recommend this book:)

This excellent collection of the unique foods common to the uncommon people of Finland not only offers easy, American (not metric) measure recipes. Along with the cooking, the author provides a rich cultural background for many of the dishes, especially for holiday events. Having married a Finn, I have also enjoyed hearing her describe the memories she attaches to some of these hearty foods from the Land of the Midnight Sun.

This book contains a HUGE asortment of recipes for Finnish foods, each one accompanied by relevant and interesting tidbits about the land and its people. The recipes are listed by both their English and Finnish names, with helpful hints for many. Directions are clear and concise. Included are traditional menus for various holidays, as well as a fascinating introduction to the people, the language, a brief history, and unique customs. Suggestions for additional reading finish (Finnish!) the book. I found it excellent, with the only negative being a lack of photos of the prepared dishes. However, drawings are utilized when appropriate to clarify, for example, the necessary shape of a pastry. If you have any interest in experiencing the delicious cuisine of this country, buy this book!

My husband had a copy of this cookbook when we married, and once I discovered and began using it... wow, what a treasure! It doesn't have photos or illustrations, but then, if you think about it, our ancestors didn't have the benefit of such, either. I think the book stands strong on its own, without them. There are a lot of great recipes within - even if I have no idea how to pronounce them. :) I've found a few really good ones which are really helpful for lowcarb eating, as well.

I love this book!

I love this book, and I would never have stumbled upon it except for Amazon's "recommendations" program.
My grandmother was Finnish and used to bake bread on a regular basis. I was only 7 years old the last time I saw her, but as I knead the Finnish rye bread dough, I can see her in her kitchen making bread.
I want to make everything in the book. Everything in it seems "right" to me. I see myself in it.

This book contains a HUGE asortment of recipes for Finnish foods, each one accompanied by relevant and interesting tidbits about the land and its people. The recipes are listed by both their English and Finnish names, with helpful hints for many. Directions are clear and concise. Included are traditional menus for various holidays, as well as a fascinating introduction to the people, the language, a brief history, and unique customs. Suggestions for additional reading finish (Finnish!) the book. I found it excellent, with the only negative being a lack of photos of the prepared dishes. However, drawings are utilized when appropriate to clarify, for example, the necessary shape of a pastry. If you have any interest in experiencing the delicious cuisine of this country, buy this book!

This book is an introduction to the Finnish kitchen. Ojakangas, a second generation Finnish-America, learned some traditional Finnish dishes from her grandmother. But when her husband was awarded a Fulbright grant in Finland for 1960-61, she was able to get make an intensive study of Finnish food culture. She discovered how some of the dishes she had learned to make as a child had roots deep in Finland, while others were presumably American creations. In this collection of recipes, Ojakangas focuses on the foods found on Finnish tables, although she does include some of the Finnish American traditions that have become standard in Finnish-American culture.

The book makes fascinating reading, for Ojakangas provides not only the common recipes, but she also includes with each recipe a brief description of how the dish fits into the context of the daily diet. Rather than following the standard American cookbook organization of appetizers and soups, main dishes, sides dishes, and desserts, Ojakangas pay close attention to which types of foods are most important for Finns and how they are used together. With this in mind, the book begins with breads, moves on to the coffee table (mainly cookies and cakes), pastries (both sweet and savory), soups, fish, meat dishes (heavy on the liver, pork, and sausage, and very little chicken), vegetables and salads (mostly roots, very little greenery), desserts (fruit soups and porridges), dairy and eggs, beverages, sauces, and sandwiches (open-faced). At the end of the book is a chapter with suggested menus for special occasions and a selected reading list and bibliography.

This is the best and most authentic Finnish cookbook that I've come across in English. I've tried out a few Finnish American cookbooks, and although their recipes may be tasty, they often are distinctly American in flavor, with many more ingredients like green vegetables than one would ever find in Finland. In this book, we find recipes for all the Finnish standards, for everything from kalakukko to maksalaatikko, from mämmi to sima. Ojakangas provides both the Finnish and English names for each dish; although the Finnish is generally quite accurate, there are a few typos. (I stared at "valdemariisi" for quite some time before I realized it should have been written "vadelmariisi", or raspberry rice.)

The culinary descriptions make this book great reading for anyone contemplating visiting or living in Finland for an extended period. I sure wish I had read it before heading off to study in Finland as an exchange student. The first week I arrived in the country, my host-mother showed me around the kitchen and told me to make myself at home. Then she went off to work in Helsinki for the week, and I was left to fend for myself along with her teenage daughters. By the end of the week, I was starving, having consumed all the food that was familiar to me in the first few days. When my host-mother returned from Helsinki and heard that I had reported there was no food in the house, she became very upset, and showed me a large sack of potatoes and other mysterious food stores. At the time, although I was an decent pasta cook and could make some passable stir-fried vegetables, I had never cooked a potato in my life-nor did I know what to do with any of the other foods in the kitchen. I didn't know what Finns ate or when they ate it, so I was completely at a loss when left to feed myself in a Finnish kitchen. A thorough reading of this book before leaving home would have provided a great preparation for what I would find in Finland. I would not have been so surprised by the dark chewy breads, the early meal times, and the importance of lunch and coffee-hour rather than dinner and dessert.

This is an excellent Finnish cookbook. My wife, who is of Finnish decent, has been thrilled with her copy. She says she has found many recipes that her mother and grandmother both used and it is especially fun to read the titles in the Finnish words she has known . We use a great deal of Finnish food in our daily diet, but there are a great many in this book that are yet to be tried. Beatrice Ojakangas deserves 5 stars for putting forth such a great book, and for mixing in a little of Finnish culture as a bonus.

My first husband was a Finn, bred, born and raised, and often longed for the food of his youth. This book was invaluable; it had all the recipes for dishes that he missed, with instructions that let me turn out perfect pulla (a wonderful bread), kalakukko (rye bread stuffed with fish and bacon) and piirakka (rice or potato pasties) in record time. Some of the cultural information is a bit dated in my edition (I have the old 60s version), but it was still an interesting read. My daughters still make piirakka every Christmas Eve.

My edition has a typo that I hope has been corrected in the newer one. The recipe for lutefisk starts with "Take a large fried codfish..." It should, of course, be a large dried codfish.

This book is really a keepsake for the newest Finnish generations. I didn't have a recipe book from my grandparents or aunts, but there are so many things my grandmother made and she was also from Northern Minnesota. The only thing I wish it had more of was pictures, but the author is so knowledgeable, that this book is a must for the 3rd and 4th generation Finns.