🫐 Guesoa Keittio

Pohjolan keittiö · A Nordic recipe journal

Finnish Cooking Without Vegetable Oil

Slow northern food the way Finnish grandmothers made it. Butter in the pan, cream in the pot, rye in the oven and fish from cold water. Nothing from the seed oil aisle, ever.

Browse the Recipes

Hyvää ruokahalua, and take your time.

A rustic table set with homemade dishes ready to share
The long table
Real Butter FirstVoi
Honest Dark RyeRuis
Never Seed OilsEi siemenöljyä

Six dishes from the North

The Guesoa Recipe Collection

Classic Finnish home cooking, tested in an ordinary kitchen with ordinary pans. Every dish below is made with butter, cream or olive oil. Not one drop of vegetable oil.

Browned meat resting in a cast iron pan

Finnish Meatballs in Cream Sauce

Lihapullat kermakastikkeessa

Small, tender meatballs browned in plenty of butter, then simmered in a pale cream sauce warmed with allspice. This is Thursday supper across Finland, served with boiled potatoes and lingonberries.

Time 50 min Serves 4 Level Medium

Ingredients

  • 500 g ground beef and pork mix
  • 1 small yellow onion, grated
  • 60 g fine rye breadcrumbs
  • 150 ml whole milk
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp fine salt, plus white pepper
  • 50 g butter, for frying
  • 250 ml heavy cream
  • 200 ml beef stock

Method

  1. Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk for 10 minutes until soft and swollen.
  2. Mix in the meat, grated onion, egg, allspice, salt and a good pinch of white pepper. Work the mixture briefly, just until it holds together.
  3. Roll into balls the size of a walnut with wet hands and rest them on a tray for 10 minutes.
  4. Melt the butter in a wide pan over medium heat and brown the meatballs in batches, turning gently until golden on all sides.
  5. Return every meatball to the pan, pour in the stock and cream, and simmer uncovered for 12 to 15 minutes until the sauce thickens.
  6. Taste, season, and serve with boiled potatoes and a spoonful of lingonberry jam.
A plated fish dish with fresh herbs

Butter Fried Perch with Dill Potatoes

Voissa paistettu ahven

Perch is the everyday treasure of Finnish lakes. A light dusting of rye flour and a pan of browning butter is all the fillets need, with new potatoes rolled in dill butter alongside.

Time 35 min Serves 2 Level Easy

Ingredients

  • 400 g perch fillets, skin on
  • 3 tbsp rye flour
  • 80 g butter, divided
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • White pepper, to taste
  • 500 g small new potatoes
  • 1 large bunch fresh dill, chopped
  • Flaky sea salt, for the potatoes
  • Half a lemon
  • Chives, to finish

Method

  1. Boil the potatoes in well salted water until a knife slides through, about 18 minutes, then drain and keep warm.
  2. Pat the fillets dry, season with salt and white pepper, and dust both sides lightly with rye flour.
  3. Melt half the butter in a wide pan over medium high heat and let it foam and turn pale golden.
  4. Fry the fillets skin side down for 3 minutes, then turn carefully and give the other side 2 minutes, basting with the pan butter.
  5. Toss the warm potatoes with the remaining butter, the chopped dill and flaky salt.
  6. Serve the perch with the dill potatoes, a squeeze of lemon and a scatter of chives.
Fresh carrots with their green tops on a wooden surface

Baked Carrot Casserole

Porkkanalaatikko

A gently sweet casserole of mashed carrots and creamy rice under a golden butter crumb. It belongs to the Finnish Christmas table, but it is far too good to save for December.

Time 1 h 15 min Serves 6 Level Easy

Ingredients

  • 700 g carrots, peeled and chunked
  • 100 g short grain rice
  • 500 ml whole milk
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • Half tsp ground nutmeg
  • White pepper, to taste
  • 50 g butter, plus more for the dish
  • 4 tbsp fine breadcrumbs

Method

  1. Simmer the rice in the milk over low heat, stirring often, until thick and porridge like, about 30 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile boil the carrots until completely tender, drain well and mash them roughly.
  3. Heat the oven to 180 C and butter a medium baking dish generously.
  4. Fold the mashed carrots into the rice porridge with the eggs, honey, salt, nutmeg and white pepper.
  5. Spread the mixture into the dish, scatter the breadcrumbs on top and dot all over with the butter.
  6. Bake for 40 minutes until the surface is deep golden and the edges bubble. Rest 10 minutes before serving.
A steaming bowl of creamy soup

Creamy Salmon Soup

Lohikeitto

The most loved pot in Finland. Salmon, potatoes and leek in a cream broth heavy with fresh dill. It comes together in under an hour and tastes like a cabin by the lake.

Time 40 min Serves 4 Level Easy

Ingredients

  • 500 g salmon fillet, skinned and cubed
  • 30 g butter
  • 1 leek, white part sliced
  • 600 g waxy potatoes, cubed
  • 1 carrot, sliced thin
  • 1 litre fish stock
  • 5 whole allspice berries
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 250 ml heavy cream
  • 1 big bunch fresh dill, chopped

Method

  1. Melt the butter in a soup pot and soften the leek over gentle heat without letting it color, about 5 minutes.
  2. Add the potatoes, carrot, stock, allspice and bay leaf. Simmer until the potatoes are just tender, 12 to 15 minutes.
  3. Pour in the cream and bring the pot back to a quiet simmer.
  4. Slide in the salmon cubes and cook gently for 4 to 5 minutes. Do not let the soup boil hard or the fish will toughen.
  5. Season with salt and white pepper, then stir through most of the dill off the heat.
  6. Ladle into deep bowls, top with the remaining dill and serve with dark rye bread and butter.
Rustic rye baking fresh from the oven

Karelian Pies with Egg Butter

Karjalanpiirakka ja munavoi

Thin rye crusts crimped by hand around a soft rice porridge, then brushed with butter as they leave the oven. Split one warm and spread it thick with egg butter.

Time 2 h Makes 12 pies Level Advanced

Ingredients

  • 200 g rye flour
  • 100 g all purpose flour
  • 150 ml cold water
  • 1 tsp fine salt, divided
  • 150 g short grain rice
  • 700 ml whole milk
  • 100 g butter, divided
  • 2 hard boiled eggs
  • Pinch of white pepper
  • Milk and melted butter, for brushing

Method

  1. Simmer the rice in the milk with a pinch of salt, stirring, until it becomes a thick porridge, about 40 minutes. Stir in 30 g butter and cool.
  2. Mix both flours with the remaining salt and the cold water into a firm dough. Rest it under a bowl for 15 minutes.
  3. Divide the dough into 12 pieces and roll each into a very thin oval on a rye floured surface.
  4. Spread a spoonful of rice porridge down the middle of each oval, leaving a wide border.
  5. Fold the edges inward and crimp them with your fingertips into the classic rippled rim.
  6. Bake at 250 C for 12 to 15 minutes until the rims take dark spots. Brush the hot pies with milk and melted butter and cover with a towel to soften.
  7. Mash the boiled eggs with the remaining soft butter and white pepper, and serve this egg butter over the warm pies.
A berry pie dusted with sugar on a cooling rack

Finnish Blueberry Pie

Mustikkapiirakka

A soft cardamom butter crust holding a pool of wild blueberries under a spoonful of tangy sour cream custard. In Finland it is baked the day the berries come out of the forest.

Time 1 h Serves 8 Level Medium

Ingredients

  • 150 g soft butter
  • 120 g sugar, divided
  • 1 egg, for the dough
  • 220 g all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp ground cardamom
  • 400 g blueberries, fresh or frozen
  • 200 ml sour cream
  • 1 egg, for the custard
  • 1 tsp vanilla sugar

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 200 C. Beat the butter with 90 g of the sugar until pale, then beat in one egg.
  2. Fold in the flour, baking powder and cardamom to make a soft dough.
  3. Press the dough over the base and up the sides of a buttered 24 cm pie dish with floured fingers.
  4. Tumble the blueberries over the base in an even layer.
  5. Whisk the sour cream with the second egg, the remaining sugar and the vanilla sugar, and pour it over the berries.
  6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes until the crust is golden and the custard barely trembles. Cool before slicing and serve with cold milk.
In a Finnish kitchen, patience is the first ingredient. Butter, rye, lake fish and forest berries do the rest.

Guesoa Keittio is an independent recipe journal devoted to Finnish home cooking as it was made before industrial fats reached the pantry. Every dish we publish relies on butter, cream, ghee, olive oil or coconut oil. We do not cook with vegetable oil or seed oils, and we never will.

We write each recipe the slow way: cook, taste, adjust, cook again. What you find here is food for ordinary weeknights and long winter Sundays, meant to be shared at a crowded table.

Tervetuloa pöytään. Welcome to the table.