Karelian pasty

Karelian pasty

A store-bought Karelian pasty
Origin
Place of origin	Finland
Region or state	Karelia
Details
Type	Pasty, pirog
Main ingredient(s)	rye flour or wheat flour, rice, butter

Karelian pasties, Karelian pies or Karelian pirogs (South Karelian dialect of Finnish: karjalanpiirakat, singular karjalanpiirakka; North Karelian dialect of Finnish: karjalanpiiraat, singular karjalanpiiras; Karelian: kalitta (singular); Olonets Karelian: šipainiekku; Russian: Карельский пирог Karelskiy pirog or калитка kalitka; Swedish: Karelska piroger) are traditional pasties or pirogs from the region of Karelia. Today they are eaten throughout Finland as well as in the neighbouring Estonia and northern Russia.

The oldest traditional pasties usually had a rye crust, but the North Karelian and Ladoga Karelian variants also had wheat alongside of rye to improve the baking characteristics of the available rye breads. The common fillings of this era were barley and talkkuna. The 19th century first introduced potato and buckwheat as new fillings, and later due to trade, also rice and millet.

Nowadays in the most familiar and common recipe the pasties are made from a thin rye crust with a filling of rice. Butter, often mixed with boiled egg (egg butter or munavoi), is spread over the hot pasties before eating.

Karjalanpiirakka have Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status in Europe.

See also

• Finnish cuisine
• Karelian Hot Pot
• Kalakukko
• List of butter dishes
• List of pastries
• Mämmi
• Khachapuri
• Vatrushka
• Cantiq
• Sklandrausis

External links

• Karelian pasties recipe at Wikibooks Cookbook
• Karelian pasties recipe and more