Kainuun rönttönen

Appearance & taste

Kainuun rönttönen is a relatively small, round pie with a rye crust that is open at the top. The filling of potatoes flavoured with lingonberries is reddish-brown and glistens with the melted butter. The potatoes are left to turn sweet before baking. Once baked, the pie is crisp and golden brown.

Production

Rönttönen are made by hand, starting with measuring out the raw materials; machines only help with kneading and rolling out the dough and with peeling the potatoes. For the filling, the potatoes are peeled, boiled until done and mashed, and mixed with rye flour once slightly cooled. The mixture stands for two to three hours at room temperature so that it turns sweet, and is stirred now and then; then sweetened lingonberry purée and salt are added. For 2 kg of potatoes the recipe uses 0.3 kg of rye flour, 0.4 kg of lingonberry purée and 0.1 kg of sugar.

For the crust, rye flour, some wheat flour and rye bread dough are gradually worked into cold, salted water, and finally turnip rape oil (rapeseed oil). The dough is rolled out 2 mm thin and cut into discs 50 to 130 mm in diameter. A generous portion of filling goes onto each, leaving a centimetre to the edge. The edge is folded over the filling and evenly pleated with a blunt fork. The rönttönen bake crisp and golden brown in a hot oven; then the edges are brushed with hot melted butter.

Covered at room temperature they keep until the next day, and in the refrigerator for up to a week. They can be frozen raw or fully baked. The producer must produce in the area and state their name on the pack or label.

Origin & history

Kainuu is a region in the province of Oulu with eight municipalities and two towns, with a lot of forest, water, bogs and protected areas. According to the specification, bread and baked goods play an important role in meals there; in the baking book “Kainuun leipä” (1978), Götha and Reima Rannikko describe almost a hundred different basic baked goods and explain the variety by the fact that the traditions of Nordpohjala, Savo and Dvina Karelia meet in Kainuu.

According to tradition, the rönttönen came about in times of scarce supplies: when the farmer set off for forest work in late winter, the housewife scraped together the last lingonberries and potatoes and baked a large, nourishing pie in a rye crust from them. In the past there was hardly any sugar; the sweetness came from the potatoes. Today rönttönen are also baked small, in cocktail size.

There are many pies in Kainuu, but only the open pie made to this recipe is called rönttönen. It is the municipal dish of Kuhmo and is associated with Kainuu in cookbooks and textbooks such as “Suomalaisia leipäerikoisuuksia” (1988) and Jaakko Kolmonen’s “Suomen maakuntaleivät”, as well as in the novel “Muina miehinä” by Veikko Huovinen. It is part of cultural events such as the chamber music festival in Kuhmo and was presented, among other occasions, in 1996 at a trade fair for confectioners and bakers in Stuttgart.