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Finnish karelian pasty classic twisted karjalanpiirakka
Karelian pasties, Karelian pies or Karelian pirogs (South Karelian dialect of Finnish: karjalanpiirakat, singular karjalanpiirakka; North Karelian dialect of Finnish: karjalanpiiraat, singular karjalanpiiras; Karelian: kalittoa, singular kalitta; 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.
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The oldest traditional pasties usually had a rye crust, but the North Karelian and Ladoga Karelian variants also contained wheat to improve the baking characteristics. The common fillings of this era were barley and talkkuna. In the 19th century, first potato and buckwheat were introduced as fillings, and later also rice and millet.
Today, the most familiar and common version has a thin rye crust with a filling of rice. Butter, often mixed with chopped-up boiled egg (egg butter or munavoi), is spread over the hot pasties before eating. Mashed potato and rice-and-carrot fillings are also commonly available.
Karjalanpiirakka has Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG) status in Europe. This means that any product outside of specific regions and bakeries that make a similar product cannot call them karjalanpiirakka and instead call them riisipiirakka ("rice pasties"), perunapiirakka ("potato pasties") etc., depending on the filling.
Karelian pasty
