Fun Food Facts

[varjohaltia]

Everyone's favorite Finnish drink, piimä

Cultured buttermilk or milk, also called soured milk or fermented milk, is a creamy, pourable drink made by fermenting low-fat or skimmed milk with special buttermilk culture bacteria. These microorganisms convert part of the milk sugar (lactose) into lactic acid. The acid curdles the milk protein, giving the buttermilk a thick consistency and a refreshingly sour, aromatic taste. In Finland, cultured buttermilk is consumed as a drink, usually during meals. It is also used in baking of various breads and cakes. The milk fat content of regular Finnish buttermilks usually ranges between 0 to 2.5%.

This is what goes into Danishes. Quark!

Up, down, strange... or just like so:
Also called baker's cheese, quark is a kind of unripened, soft cheese that resembles a very thick sour cream or cream cheese. Finnish quark is made by curdling pasteurized low-fat/nonfat milk with lactic acid bacteria.

Quark can be used instead of butter in pie crusts and pastry doughs, as a filling in sweet or savoury cakes and pies and in various desserts like cheesecakes, mousses, puddings etc. It is much used in cooking in Finland, Germany and Russia. It is called творог (tvorog) in Russian. It is a main ingredient in many Russian traditional dishes, like syrniki, paskha etc.

Note: the Finnish and Russian quarks differ from each other a great deal. The Russian quark is much firmer in consistency and contains about 15 % milk fat. This is the "genuine" type of quark. The Finnish quark, on the other hand, is smoother and contains too much liquid to be used in original Russian dishes without letting it drain first. It contains between 0,4 and 7 % milk fat.

Both from here

Also, check out leipäjuusto and cloudberries. Good stuff!