Estonian national dishes: overview, features, where to try, recipes

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Estonian cuisine is famous for its simplicity. But that doesn't make it primitive. The cuisine of a small European country is different from others, so it will seem a little unusual to tourists. Estonian national dishes can please with taste and at the same time upset with lack of sophistication and meager variety. But nevertheless, the food here is very satisfying and, most importantly, natural.

Culinary traditions

The kitchen menu is based on soups, cereals, pork, fish and vegetables. A typical breakfast necessarily consists of porridge (oatmeal, barley or pearl barley). Sometimes it is cooked in milk with the addition of jam or honey. But more often served with cracklings and butter. Each meal is accompanied by s alted herring, rye bread. For lunch and dinner, bean, pea or cabbage soup is always prepared in pork broth.

Festive table is not complete without black pudding with the addition of cereals. Also, pancakes and jelly become frequent guests during the feast. Notserving without milk, cottage cheese, butter and cheese. But with the advent of potatoes in the country, the list of Estonian national dishes has expanded significantly.

Modern cuisine

Today it has become more diverse, because Estonians borrowed many dishes from their neighbors - they borrowed sausages from the Germans, goulash from the Hungarians, bigos from the Poles. The only thing that hasn't changed is that sauerkraut and pork roast, jellied meat and black pudding are always served on any occasion.

On Maslenitsa, as in Russia, pancakes are fried from several types of flour and with various fillings.

Pickles are widely used:

• tomato paste;
• lecho;
• pickled pumpkin and tomatoes;
• cucumbers.

Estonian cuisine has been replenished with salads and pastries. For example, buns with whipped cream are extremely popular in the country now.

Estonian national dishes: speci alties of soups

The locals love them very much, so there are a lot of them in traditional cooking. There are about 20 dairy products alone: with mushrooms, fish, pork and even beer. Or you can try something completely unusual - bread or blueberry dessert, which Estonians borrowed from the Swedes.

Very popular among the population are herring fish soups, barley soup with peas or barley soup with potatoes. But among tourists, cabbage soup with brisket and pea soup with knuckle are especially popular.

Sweets and drinks

Now you will be surprised, but in Estonia there are twothe main desserts are pepper cookies and onion jam. The latter was traditionally prepared with the addition of honey, now it has been replaced with sugar. As for cookies, the main ingredients are: a mixture of cinnamon and ginger, as well as pepper.

Among the national drinks, perhaps, it is worth highlighting oatmeal jelly and red beer. The latter is served in almost every tavern, and this shade is achieved by adding berries.

Kissel is prepared from oats by long boiling. In addition to cereals, milk, berries and honey are also added to it.

Cooking Pirukad

This pastry made of dough can hardly be called a pie, although the locals prefer to say so. In fact, these are fillings wrapped in a thick layer of dough, which are baked in the form of large loaves. Today it has been modernized and is cooked like regular pies.

The recipe for pirucades is quite simple: knead any kind of dough (sand, puff or yeast). Set the flour semi-finished product aside and take care of the filling. Chop carrots, cabbage and onions. Place the vegetables in a frying pan or pot, cover with oil and simmer for 8-10 minutes. At the end, pepper and s alt to taste. Add pre-cooked minced meat. Stir and refrigerate. Form pies from the dough and filling and bake at a temperature of 190 gr. 20-25 minutes.

Piparkook cookie recipe

Each year before Christmas, Estonians prepare this sweet for their guests. For cooking, you will need to melt sugar (300d) and wait until it acquires a beautiful rich brown hue. Remove the dish from heat, cool slightly and pour boiling water (130 ml), stirring vigorously to dissolve the sweet ingredient. Add oil (150 g) to the syrup, one teaspoon each of cloves and cinnamon, as well as 0.5 each of cardamom and ginger powder. Send back to the stove. Simmer for 2-3 more minutes and then cool to room temperature.

Beat the egg. Pour in a teaspoon of vinegar, add sour cream (1 tablespoon) and stir until smooth. Combine with warm syrup. Add flour mixed with baking soda and knead the dough. Send the finished semi-finished product for a day in the refrigerator.

Roll out a 3 mm thick layer and cut into portioned slices or use New Year's cookie cutters. Bake the piparkook for 6-7 minutes at 200 degrees. Before serving, be sure to decorate the pastries with icing.

The most delicious duck meat recipe

Rinse 8 duck breasts, remove veins and cut into portions. In a separate bowl, mix 2 tablespoons of mustard, 70 ml of olive oil, juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp. l. soy sauce. S alt, pepper if desired and add other favorite spices. You can also add a few minced garlic cloves to enhance the taste.

Put the meat in the marinade and leave for at least 3 hours. Grill on the grill for 25 minutes. During this time, do not forget to turn the duck skewers at least 4 times.

4 must-try dishes

1. Pickled eel. Served coldform. Agree, it sounds quite simple, but this is the favorite food of the locals. Be careful during the tasting, because there may be bones that must be eaten. Get ready for a bit too fishy too, there's a lot more here than you'd expect.

2. Suite. Some foreigners are afraid to taste this popular Estonian national dish. We are talking about meat jelly, which is prepared from pork bones. However, sometimes they throw their heads with hooves to them. As a rule, it is customary to cook suites in large pots so that people can put it in a jar and take it with them. We warn you that the smell will make you cringe for the unprepared, but take our advice: get out of your comfort zone and enjoy the taste, just like the Estonians do.

3. Blood sausage. The British called it "black pudding" because of its characteristic color, and for the locals it is one of the types of meat product. As the name suggests, the “stuffing” in minced meat is blood, which is allowed to cool during cooking. It is usually eaten in winter as it is a Christmas dish. As a rule, blood sausage is prepared with pearl barley, and served with sour cream, butter and even cranberry jam. Sounds awful? And you try!

4. Multicapsad. Pork, cabbage and potatoes are what you need to prepare this dish. Simple, at first glance, the ingredients, but believe me, the result is so satisfying that you can hardly cope with one serving. Judging by the fact that the locals eat it during the cold season, mulgicapsadvery useful. By the way, to taste the dish, you do not need to pull yourself together or close your nose. Isn't it a great start to get to know the local cuisine?

Travel notes: where to taste national cuisine in Estonia

Among the huge selection of establishments, there are several of the most popular and interesting:

1. MEKK

The restaurant offers local cuisine in the author's performance. In accordance with historical traditions, the menu depends on the time of year: fruits and vegetables prevail in summer and spring, preserves and meat in autumn and winter. Address: Suur-Karja 17/19.

2. Peppersack

The institution offers guests to get acquainted with the classic cuisine of the country. When visiting the restaurant, be sure to order an Estonian-style sprat sandwich, potato salad, stewed pork with sauerkraut, black pudding (it's just excellent here) and kama - a mixture of several cereals with milk or jam). Dishes are prepared from natural products with a minimum set of spices. Mostly s alt and herbs are used as seasoning. Address: Viru 2/Vana Turg 6.

3. Maiasmokk

The oldest cafe not only in Tallinn, but in all of Estonia. Tourists recommend starting a meal not with soups and salads, as is usually the case, but immediately start tasting the following sweets:

• handmade sweets;
• marzipan desserts;
• delicate buns with cream;
• various cakes and pies.

In the institution alsoyou can visit a special room where the history of marzipan is shown. Address: Pikk tanav 16, Kesklinna linnaosa.