Can You Pick the Finnish One?
Nine rounds of Finnish food against the things people mistake it for. Four photos a round, no captions until you have chosen, and the tells are real ones.
Finnish food is mostly rye, mostly baked in a tray, and mostly has a near-twin somewhere else in Europe. Nine rounds, four photographs each, and the difference named every time.
Four photos. One of them is Finnish.
Nine rounds, four photographs each, and no captions until you have picked one.
Nearly every Finnish staple has a near-twin somewhere else in Europe. The difference is usually one detail, and it is usually the same kind of detail.
Level 1 - on the plate Whole things, good light, nothing cropped away. If you have lived here a year these should be free.
Pick the karjalanpiirakka.
Two tells: the crust is rye, so it is grey-brown rather than golden, and the edge is pinched by hand into a ragged frill. Everything else in that grid was made from wheat.
Pick the korvapuusti.
Shape, not spice. All four are cinnamon-adjacent; only the Finnish one is cut on a slant and squashed flat so the layers fan out at the sides.
Pick the ruisleipä.
Look for the hole. Finnish rye is baked as a flat round with a hole in the middle, because the loaves were dried on a pole. German and Danish rye are baked in tins, so they come out square.
Level 2 - no plate, no table Context gone. Just the food now, which is where people find out they were reading the background.
Pick the leipäjuusto.
The scorch marks. Leipäjuusto is browned under a grill before it is sold, so it arrives already spotted. Every other fresh cheese here is sold white and browned by you, if at all.
Pick the laskiaispulla.
It has to be a pulla underneath - a cardamom bread dough, split and filled. Choux is hollow, and a doughnut has no seam.
Pick the mustikkapiirakka.
Rectangular. Finnish berry baking goes in a tray and gets cut into squares, because it is made for a table of people rather than for slices.
Level 3 - now it gets unfair These are the rounds where the Finnish thing looks like nothing, or exactly like bread. Both traps are real.
Pick the mämmi.
Mämmi is eaten cold, from a bowl, and never turned out or set alight. If it is holding a shape on a plate, it is something else.
Pick the kalakukko.
An unscored crust. Bakers slash a loaf to control how it opens; a kalakukko is sealed on purpose, because a cut would let out the fat it has been baking in all day.
Pick the tippaleipä.
A dome, not a disc. The batter is dripped in loops that pile up on themselves, so it stands proud of the plate instead of lying flat on it.
0/9
Kotikokki
Eight or nine out of nine on photographs with the captions taken off. You are not recognising these from a textbook - you have stood in front of them.
The useful part is that the tells you were using are the transferable ones: rye versus wheat, tray versus tin, browned before sale versus browned by you. Those three carry most of a Finnish bakery counter.
0/9
Kahvipöytä
Six or seven. You know the everyday half cold - the pastry, the bun, the bread - and the ones that went past you are the seasonal ones that are only in the shops for a few weeks a year.
That is the normal shape of it. Laskiaispulla, mämmi and tippaleipä each have a window of about a month, so unless you happened to be here for it you have never seen one in person.
0/9
Kohtelias vieras
Three to five. You found the cinnamon bun and the rye, and after that it was a reasonable guess made with confidence.
Worth knowing: the thing that catches most people is assuming the Finnish option will look more rustic or more severe than its neighbours. It usually just looks flatter, greyer, and like it was baked in a tray.
0/9
Ensi kertaa
Two or fewer, which means the grid was doing its job. Nearly every one of these has a cousin somewhere else in Europe, and telling them apart is a matter of having seen the real one rather than of being clever.
Start with the rye. If the crust is grey-brown rather than golden and the edge looks pinched by hand rather than cut by a machine, you are probably looking at the Finnish one.
What each one actually was
1 Pick the karjalanpiirakka.
- Karjalanpiirakka - correct answer
- Right. A thin rye crust pinched into a ragged oval, rice porridge inside, and usually a spoon of egg butter on top. It is in every shop here, every morning.
- Vatrushka - Russian
- Round, tall and sweet - a soft wheat bun with curd in the dip. A piirakka crust is thin rye and the edge is pinched by hand, so it is never this smooth.
- Pirozhki - Russian
- Closed, not open. Whatever is inside a pirozhki stays hidden; a karjalanpiirakka shows you its filling from across the room.
- Khachapuri - Georgian
- The boat shape catches people out. But this is bread with cheese and a raw egg dropped in the middle, and it is the size of a dinner plate.
The tell Two tells: the crust is rye, so it is grey-brown rather than golden, and the edge is pinched by hand into a ragged frill. Everything else in that grid was made from wheat.
2 Pick the korvapuusti.
- Korvapuusti - correct answer
- Right. The name means a slap on the ear, and that is the shape - cut on a slant, then pressed down in the middle so the layers spread sideways.
- Kanelbulle - Swedish
- The closest relative here, and the tell is shape rather than spice. A kanelbulle stays a round coil; a korvapuusti gets squashed flat.
- American cinnamon roll
- Icing. A korvapuusti is finished with pearl sugar and nothing else, and a frosting like this never happens to one.
- Skolebrød - Norwegian
- Custard in the middle, coconut round the rim. Nordic, but not this country.
The tell Shape, not spice. All four are cinnamon-adjacent; only the Finnish one is cut on a slant and squashed flat so the layers fan out at the sides.
3 Pick the ruisleipä.
- Ruisleipä - correct answer
- Right. Sour rye baked dense and flat, and often with a hole through the middle - loaves used to be threaded onto a pole under the ceiling to dry.
- Pumpernickel - German
- Also rye, also dark, but steamed for hours in a sealed tin. That is why it comes out as a damp square brick rather than a round loaf.
- Rugbrød - Danish
- Danish rye, cut in long rectangles to carry an open sandwich. Finnish rye is baked round, and the hole is the giveaway.
- Wheat sourdough
- Sourdough, but wheat. That open golden crumb is the tell - rye does not rise like this.
The tell Look for the hole. Finnish rye is baked as a flat round with a hole in the middle, because the loaves were dried on a pole. German and Danish rye are baked in tins, so they come out square.
4 Pick the leipäjuusto.
- Leipäjuusto - correct answer
- Right. Fresh cheese pressed flat and put under a grill, which is where the leopard spots come from. It squeaks against your teeth and is eaten warm with cloudberry jam.
- Halloumi - Cypriot
- The other squeaky cheese, and the one most people reach for. Halloumi is sold raw and browns in your pan; leipäjuusto is browned before you buy it.
- Paneer - South Asian
- Same idea, no browning. Paneer stays white because it never goes near a flame until you cook it.
- Queso fresco - Mexican
- A fresh white round, soft and crumbling at the cut. Nothing on it has seen heat.
The tell The scorch marks. Leipäjuusto is browned under a grill before it is sold, so it arrives already spotted. Every other fresh cheese here is sold white and browned by you, if at all.
5 Pick the laskiaispulla.
- Laskiaispulla - correct answer
- Right. A cardamom bun split and filled with whipped cream and either almond paste or jam, eaten at Shrovetide. Which filling is correct is a real argument here.
- Munkki - also Finnish
- Finnish, but the wrong Finnish thing. A munkki is a sugared ring doughnut and it belongs to Vappu at the start of May, not to February.
- Maritozzo - Roman
- A sweet bun split and packed with cream, which is the same sentence - but no cardamom, no almond, and no icing sugar over the top.
- Cream puff
- Choux pastry, not bread dough. It is hollow and crisp; a pulla is soft the whole way through.
The tell It has to be a pulla underneath - a cardamom bread dough, split and filled. Choux is hollow, and a doughnut has no seam.
6 Pick the mustikkapiirakka.
- Mustikkapiirakka - correct answer
- Right. Baked flat in a tray and cut into squares, with the berries sitting in a pale set custard. Finnish home baking is mostly tray-shaped, because it has to feed a room.
- American blueberry pie
- Round, deep, and thickened until a slice holds its own shape. The Finnish one is shallow and you eat it off a square of baking paper.
- Bilberry tart
- Close. But it is round, in a tin, with a pastry case - not a sheet of dough pressed out into a baking tray.
- Apple galette
- Free-form, folded at the edges, and apple rather than berry.
The tell Rectangular. Finnish berry baking goes in a tray and gets cut into squares, because it is made for a table of people rather than for slices.
7 Pick the mämmi.
- Mämmi - correct answer
- Right. Rye flour and malt baked slowly until it turns almost black, eaten cold at Easter with cream and sugar. It looks alarming and it is still the answer.
- Christmas pudding - British
- Dark, dense, and on fire. Mämmi is never heated and never turned out in one piece - it is spooned straight from the box.
- Date paste
- The colour is close and the texture is right, but this is a block of pressed dates.
- Molasses
- A syrup, not a pudding. Mämmi holds its shape on the spoon.
The tell Mämmi is eaten cold, from a bowl, and never turned out or set alight. If it is holding a shape on a plate, it is something else.
8 Pick the kalakukko.
- Kalakukko - correct answer
- Right, and this is the round people lose. It is a rye loaf with fish and pork baked inside it for hours, from Savonia. It looks like bread because it is bread, with a meal hidden in it.
- Raised meat pie
- Also filled, but pastry rather than bread, and the crust is pale and short.
- Sourdough boule
- Scored on top, open crumb, nothing inside. A kalakukko is never scored - cutting the crust would let the juices out.
- Limppu - also Finnish
- Finnish, and still not it. Limppu is an ordinary sweetened rye loaf, and there is nothing in the middle.
The tell An unscored crust. Bakers slash a loaf to control how it opens; a kalakukko is sealed on purpose, because a cut would let out the fat it has been baking in all day.
9 Pick the tippaleipä.
- Tippaleipä - correct answer
- Right. Batter dripped into hot fat in loops until it sets into a nest, then buried in icing sugar. It appears for Vappu and then vanishes for a year.
- Funnel cake - American
- The same trick, and the closest call on the board. A funnel cake is poured flat and spreads into a lacy disc; a tippaleipä is built up into a dome.
- Jalebi - South Asian
- The same loops, soaked in syrup and dyed orange. Tippaleipä is dry and pale under the sugar.
- Churros - Spanish
- Piped in straight ridged lengths rather than looped.
The tell A dome, not a disc. The batter is dripped in loops that pile up on themselves, so it stands proud of the plate instead of lying flat on it.
Phrases in this quiz
| Finnish | What it does |
|---|---|
| karjalanpiirakka | Karelian pasty - rye crust, rice inside, sold everywhere and eaten at any hour |
| korvapuusti | cinnamon bun - literally a slap on the ear, which is the shape |
| ruisleipä | sour rye bread, baked as a flat round with a hole in the middle |
| leipäjuusto | bread cheese - fresh cheese grilled until spotted, served warm with cloudberry jam |
| laskiaispulla | the Shrovetide cream bun, with almond paste or jam depending who you ask |
| mustikkapiirakka | blueberry tray bake, cut into squares |
| mämmi | malted rye pudding eaten cold at Easter - the one that alarms visitors |
| kalakukko | a rye loaf with fish baked inside it, from Savonia |
| tippaleipä | a nest of fried batter under icing sugar, eaten at Vappu |
About this quiz
Every photograph here is a real one, taken by a named photographer and used under a free licence. None of them are generated, and the credit under each tile links to the original file.
The wrong answers are real food too. Nothing in this quiz is a made-up dish or a bad photo of the right one - each lookalike is a genuine thing that a genuine person eats somewhere, which is the only way the round is worth playing. Where a tile is another Finnish food rather than a foreign one, it says so.
Questions people ask
What is a karjalanpiirakka?
A Karelian pasty: a thin rye crust pinched into an open oval around a filling of rice porridge, baked until the edges go dark. It is usually eaten with munavoi, a mix of chopped boiled egg and butter, and it is sold in every supermarket and every petrol station in Finland.
What is the difference between a korvapuusti and a kanelbulle?
Mostly the shape. A Swedish kanelbulle is rolled and cut straight, so it keeps a round coil. A Finnish korvapuusti is cut on a slant and then pressed down in the middle with a thumb or two fingers, which splays the layers out at the sides - hence the name, which means a slap on the ear. Both are cardamom doughs finished with pearl sugar.
What is mämmi and what does it taste like?
Rye flour, malted rye and water. The sweetness comes from the malting rather than from added sugar - the mixture is held warm so the malt enzymes break the starch down - and it is then baked very slowly until it is almost black. It is eaten cold at Easter with cream and sugar. It tastes malty and slightly bitter, closer to dark rye bread than to a dessert, and it divides Finns as much as it alarms visitors.
What is leipäjuusto?
Bread cheese: a fresh cheese pressed into a flat disc and browned under a grill or an open flame, which gives it the scorched spots. It squeaks against your teeth, and it is usually served warm with cloudberry jam, or dropped into coffee.
What is a kalakukko?
A speciality of Savonia: fish - usually vendace - and pork fat sealed inside a rye dough and baked slowly for hours until the bones soften. It looks exactly like a plain loaf of bread from the outside, which is the point of it as a portable meal.
The words behind it
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