Finnish cuisine Finnish cuisine is notable for generally combining traditional country fare and '' haute cuisine'' with contemporary continental style cooking. Fish and meat (usually pork, beef or reindeer) play a prominent role in traditional Finnish dishes ...

, rosolli is a

salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed, mostly natural ingredients with at least one raw ingredient. They are typically served at room temperature or chilled, though some can be served warm. Condiments and salad dressings, which exist in a v ...

eaten mostly as a cold

side dish A side dish, sometimes referred to as a side order, side item, or simply a side, is a food item that accompanies the entrée or main course at a meal.

, in particular as part of the traditional Finnish Christmas meal.

Overview

Rosolli is made of cooked, diced root vegetables, especially

beetroot The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet ...

, carrot and

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Un ...

, often combined with one or more of

pickled cucumber A pickled cucumber (commonly known as a pickle in the United States and Canada and a gherkin in Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand) is a usually small or miniature cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, ...

(of either the vinegar or brine type), raw

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the oni ...

and

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

. Variations may also include additional ingredients such as

pickled herring Pickled herring is a traditional way of preserving herring as food by pickling or curing. Most cured herring uses a two-step curing process: it is first cured with salt to extract water; then the salt is removed and the herring is brined in a ...

boiled egg Boiled eggs are eggs, typically from a chicken, cooked with their shells unbroken, usually by immersion in boiling water. Hard-boiled eggs are cooked so that the egg white and egg yolk both solidify, while soft-boiled eggs may leave the yolk, ...

, in which case the salad is more likely served as a starter (appetizer) rather than a side dish to a main course. Rosolli is often served with a dressing made of

whipped cream Whipped cream is liquid heavy cream that is whipped by a whisk or mixer until it is light and fluffy and holds its shape, or by the expansion of dissolved gas, forming a firm colloid. It is often sweetened, typically with white sugar, and ...

or a soured cream product available in Finland called '' kermaviili'' (being a type of

viili Viili (Finnish) is a mesophilic fermented milk product found in the Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; literal translation, lit. 'the North') are a geographical and cultural region in Northern E ...

made with

sour cream Sour cream (in North American English, Australian English and New Zealand English) or soured cream (British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, w ...

), laced with

vinegar Vinegar is an aqueous solution of acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains 5–8% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting simple sugars to ...

or the pickling liquid of beetroot, which also colours the cream pink. Similar dishes are found throughout northern Europe, from the

Low Countries The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...

across

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...

. Especially the Russian ''

vinegret Vinegret (russian: винегрет) or Russian vinaigrette is a salad in Russian cuisine which is also popular in other post-Soviet states. This type of food includes diced cooked vegetables ( red beets, potatoes, carrots), chopped onions, as w ...

'' is very similar to the Finnish rosolli.

Etymology

According to some sources, the word ''rosolli'' comes from the Russian word ''rassol'', meaning brine, although it is not known how this came to refer to the dish in question. In western Finland, alternative terms such as ''punainen salaatti'' (literally "red salad", rendered dialectically) or ''sinsalla'' (probably from the Swedish word ''sillsallad'', for " herring salad") are traditionally used.

References

External links

Rosolli recipe
{{Salads Finnish cuisine Salads Christmas food

Overview

Etymology

See also

References

External links