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

, rosolli is a

salad A salad is a dish consisting of mixed ingredients, frequently vegetables. They are typically served chilled or at room temperature, though some can be served warm. Condiments called '' salad dressings'', which exist in a variety of flavors, a ...

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.traditional Finnish Christmas meal.

Overview

Rosolli is made of cooked, diced root vegetables, especially beetroot, carrot and

potato The potato () is a starchy tuberous vegetable native to the Americas that is consumed as a staple food in many parts of the world. Potatoes are underground stem tubers of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'', a perennial in the nightshade famil ...

, often combined with one or more of

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

(of either the vinegar or brine type), raw

onion An onion (''Allium cepa'' , from Latin ), 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 onion which was classifie ...

and

apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

. 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 (food preservation), curing. Most cured herring uses a two-step curing (food preservation), curing process: it is first cured with salt to extract water; th ...

or boiled egg, 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, also known as Chantilly cream or (), is high-fat dairy cream that has been aerated by whisking until it becomes light, fluffy, and capable of holding its shape. This process incorporates air into the cream, creating a semi-soli ...

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

sour cream Sour cream (sometimes known as soured cream in British English) is a dairy product obtained by fermenting regular cream with certain kinds of lactic acid bacteria. The bacterial culture, which is introduced either deliberately or naturall ...

), laced with

vinegar Vinegar () is an aqueous solution of diluted acetic acid and trace compounds that may include flavorings. Vinegar typically contains from 5% to 18% acetic acid by volume. Usually, the acetic acid is produced by a double fermentation, converting ...

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

northern Europe The northern region of Europe has several definitions. A restrictive definition may describe northern Europe as being roughly north of the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, which is about 54th parallel north, 54°N, or may be based on other ge ...

, from the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

across

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

. Especially the Russian '' vinegret'' 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 Herring salad (Finnish language, Finnish: ''sillisalaatti'', Swedish language, Swedish: ''sillsallad'', Norwegian language, Norwegian: ''sildesalat'') is a mixed salad consisting of cut and salted herring, beetroot, potato, onion, mayonnaise and ...

") are traditionally used.

References

External links

Rosolli recipe
{{Salads Finnish cuisine Salads Christmas food

Overview

Etymology

See also

References

External links