Arctic wisdom - day 7

Dog sled Kilpisjarvi - Trination Meeting Point - Kilpisjarvi

Today we make a return trip with the dogs to the meeting point of Finland, Norway and Sweden where we cross our third national border.

We will head back to the hotel to part with our thermals and say our thanks and goodbyes to our huskies.  Hopefully we will then be celebrate by eating in a local restaurant and explore more Sámi food. 

Traditional Sámi food can be summed up in two words: meat and fish.  These would be supplemented with herbs and berries when available. Being vegetarian wasn't really an option for the Sami. Much of the meat was from reindeer, which provided excellent nutrition. Every piece of the deer was used, even the skull and blood. The intestines and the reindeer’s stomach can be cleaned and used to make black pudding and buoidecalmmas (a type of smoked, minced reindeer meat mixture).  In the past, the reindeer were milked and cheese was produced, but this is not done any more.

The Sámi dishes have not changed, but new dishes have been added. Renkok is reindeer stew.  Fresh reindeer meat is cooked with a piece of fresh liver, bread baked with blood and rye flour, as well as black pudding made of reindeer blood and flour.  This is eaten with potatoes, soft, sticky bread and a drink of broth.  Dried reindeer meat must is also known as a delicacy.

In the summer months the Sámi picked all the edible berries they could find to gain necessary vitamins.  In the past a green porridge was made from mountain sorrel and/or buds of the angelica flower which were boiled to make a pulp, then heated with reindeer milk until it thickened.  This could then be stored in a keg for the winter months.

I am told that it was the men in the nomadic society that carried out all the cooking.  Only in exceptional circumstances were women allowed to stir the stew!