Main Ingredients:

See below ingredients and instructions of the recipe

Cooking Preparation of the Recipe:

--------------------------FILLING-------------------------------
2 lb Fish, small
1 1/2 lb Pork, sliced into
-strips like bacon,
-but about 1/4 to 1/2
-inch thick
3 tb Salt (omit salt if
-pork is already salted)
Allspice (optional;
-traditionalists omit
-this)

---------------------------DOUGH--------------------------------
2 1/2 c Water
3 1/4 c Rye flour (sifted)
1 3/4 c Wheat flour, about
-(sifted)
4 ts Salt
1/2 oz Yeast (2 standard
-packages)

Clean the fish, removing fins, large scales and
entrails. You may leave the heads if you dare to eat
them.

Mix the flours and salt. Add the yeast to the water.
When the yeast is fully dissolved, make a thick dough
by pouring flour mixture into water and blending well.
The ratio of flour to water depends on the nature of
the flours. This ratio of 1:2 by volume works well in
Finland with Finnish flours. Where flours contain
more gluten you should use slightly less water.

Set aside about 4 T of dough to be used later. Roll
out the remaining dough into a circular shape about
3/4 inch thick.

Assemble the meats into the dough: cover the inner
half of the dough circle with half of the pork (the
pork should cover a circle whose diameter is half the
diameter of the rolled dough). Then put all of the
fish over top of the pork, and add allspice and extra
salt if you are using them. Finish with the second
half of the pork.

Preheat oven to 500 degrees F. Lift the edges of the
dough all around the filling and glue together with a
little water so that you have the filling surrounded
from all directions with about 3/4-inch-thick dough.
Put upside down (the seam downwards) on a baking sheet
and let it rise about half an hour at room temperature.

Put the kalakukko in a 500 degree F. oven for long
enough to brown the dough, which will seal it against
moisture. Then lower the temperature to about 250
degrees F. and let it bake for 4 to 7 hours depending
on the size of the fish (bigger fish need more cooking
time). You can brush some melted butter over the top
of the dough just after lowering the temperature; this
will give it a prettier appearance. If it starts to
leak while baking, fill holes with the dough which was
set aside.

Serve hot or cold.

NOTES:

* Rye bread pie with fish and pork filling -- This is
an ancient national food prepared and eaten in Savo
(eastern Finland).

* Kalakukko was used as travelers' food because it
stays edible very long when unopened. Also in
medieval times salt was the only way to preserve meat
and it was expensive, so with this way you could use
all the salt in salt pork. The word kala-kukko means
fish-cock (the bird).

* You can use any small fish (shorter than about 8
inches). Small scales and spikes don't matter because
they soften during the prolonged cooking. Make sure
you use un-smoked pork.

: Difficulty: moderate (some skill with dough is
required). : Time: 45 minutes preparation, 30 minutes
attended baking, 4-7 hours unattended baking.
: Precision: Careful measurement not necessary, but
the consistency of the dough (which will depend on the
nature of your flours) is important. If the dough is
either too soft or too hard, the kalakukko will leak.

Browse by categories