Reindeer dishes

[anmkosk]

We were talking in chat the other day about the traditional reindeer meat dish, so as a clarification for those who were present and as a random food related fact to those who weren't, apparently the proper name for it is sautéed reindeer. The external link for the recipe seems to be dead at the moment, but I'm hopeful it will come back in due time

Comments

[doubleholmes]

Wait, reindeer is edible in Finland? Well, I understand that deer is, but REINdeer?
I'm not sure I could eat a reindeer, they are lovely creatures.

[anmkosk]

It is mainly kept for meat and felt purposes, yes, and traditionally herded semi-domesticated by the indigenous Saami people in the Lapland area of Finland, as they have done for hundreds of years. The wild reindeer you see wandering around up north pretty much always belong to someone, and I think it's prohibited by law to hunt them for that reason. They are shortly driven together to fenced areas a couple of times a year for the purposes of keeping track of them and selecting those that are put for some use or another, but most of the year they roam free -- with some effort put in to keep them in their assigned areas, which tend to be huge. Reindeer can be tamed for transportation and entertainment purposes too, of course, and it's very popular to offer reindeer pulk rides at the bigger tourist attractions, but I'd say that's still in clear minority of the main reindeer population in Finland. Especially since reindeer felt and antler products are immensely popular among tourists as well, as are the exotic dishes of course. Which is

[pushkin666]

I have had canned reindeer meat stew, and also cheese with reindeer in - both of which I really liked. I haven't had fresh reindeer though, although I'd be happy to try reindeer meatballs. I bet they're really tasty.

[anmkosk]

I haven't eaten anything but the sautéed version recently, but if I recall correctly they really are :) Not sure I've ever had properly fresh reindeer either, actually. I've understood that the animals that get selected for meat are picked apart from the herds at autumns, and I've never been in Lapland at autumn. These southern parts of Finland usually get just the frozen or otherwise processed versions, at least in the general grocery stores. I could be wrong, though, since it's my darling who deals with cooking when necessary, and even that doesn't happen very often :)