Nutrition Psychology. Is sauteed meat, potatoes and lingon-berry part of Finnish indigoninus tradition?

On Facebook, there are pages which honor what is referred to as typically Finnish traditions. That included cinnamon buns, as well as meat balls with potatoes and lingon-berry. Now they claim that sautéed meat and potatoes, renskav in Swedish and Poronkäristys in Uralic, is part of the indigenous Finnish tradition. But meat was introduced to our ancestors 3.5 million years before the present. Farmers, and hunters and gatherers lived in Sweden 5000 years before the present. They likely cooked food quickly in a small amount of oil or butter over relatively high heat - sautéed. Potatoes arrived in the Kingdom of Sweden 1650 AD. Hence, in Fennoscandia, sautéed meat and potatoes was likely first prepared in the area around Uppsala. I wrote two comments about that on Facebook. 5 pages.

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On Facebook, there are pages which honor what is referred to as typically Finnish traditions. That included cinnamon buns, as well as meat balls with potatoes and lingon-berry. Now they claim that sautéed meat and potatoes, renskav in Swedish and Poronkäristys in Uralic, is part of the indigenous Finnish tradition.

Sautéed meat and potatoes with lingon-berry, renskav in Swedish and Poronkäristys in Uralic

What is Finland's indigoninus culture? What's the origin of sauteed meat and potatoes?

The dish is based on a three factor structure; two ingredients - meat and potatoes - and a spcific way of cooking.

Animal source food was introduced to our ancestors in the Afar region in what is now called Ethiopia, 3.5 million years before the present (Mann, 2018; McPherron et al. 2010; Thompson et al. 2019).

20 000 years - 11 600 years before the present, after the last ice maximum during a period called the Epipaleiolithic, people settle in what is referred to as the Fertile Crescenty, baked bread and brew beer (Arranz-Otaegui et al. 2018; Hodder, 2018; Liu et al. 2018).

Potatoes has been cultuvated in south America since the introduction of the Holocene (Österberg, 2018).

5000 years before the present, farmers from Sardinia, and hunters and gathers from lake Baikal lived in what is now south of Sweden (Skoglund et al 2012; Reich, 2018):

“In 2012 whole genome data arrived, covering about 200,000 times more DNA letters. That study compared hunter-gatherers and farmers who lived in southern Sweden 5,000 years ago. The farmers were not at all like present-day people from Sweden, and instead were much more similar to present-day people from Sardinia, an island off southern Europe. The hunter-gatherers were not like present-day people from Sweden either” (Reich, p 41).

The meat in renskav (Poronkäristys) is sauteed, which means cooking food quickly in a small amount of oil or butter over relatively high heat. The word “sauté” comes from the French word for “jump”, which refers to the way food is tossed or stirred in the pan to ensure even cooking. This method helps to preserve the flavor and texture of the ingredients (Co-pilot). Ergo. Historically, a common way of cooking.

The farmers and the hunters and gatherers in south of Sweden likely consumed sauteed animal source food.

The potato arrived in Spain ~1539 via the 'conquistadoren Gonzalo Jiminez de Quesada (1496, 1506, 1509 -1579) who discovered it during his explorations of northern South America. The potato was introduced in Sweden in the middle of the 17th century after the seven-time professor Olof Rudbeck the Elder (1630-1702), through contacts in Europe, obtained a potato (earth apple (jordäpple)) and had it planted in Uppsala University's medicinal garden, now known as the Linneträdgården. Dr. Rudbeck called it 'Peruvian Night Treasure' ('Peruansk Nattskatta'). Hence, in Fennoscandia, sauteed meat and potatoes were likely first prepared in the area around Uppsala.

I wrote two comments as a response:

The first respons:

That dish is called renskav in Swedish and is typically from the north.

But, the potatoes were introduced in Uppsala, Sweden ~1650.

Ergo. It's not a typically Finnish dish, rather a typically Swedish ditto.

Why?

Sometime during Vendel period (540 - 750 AD), Satakunda, now Satakunta and Birkaland, applied to become part of the sea kingdom of Svitjod, the predecessor of the Swedish kingdom.

Proper Finland, the county where Åbo is, followed suit, and for allmost thousand years, what is now Finland, was the eastern part of the Swedish kingdom.

The Swedish kingdom was marked by entrepreneurial thinking (and still is), and controlled the traffic over the Gulf of Bothnia and the Baltic Sea.

In 1346, king Magnus III founded Borgå.

In 1442, king Erik XI founded Raumo.

In 1550, king Gustav Vasa founded Helsingfors.

In 1558, king Gustav Vasa founded Björneborg.

In 1602, king Gustav II Adolf founded Karleby.

In 1605, king Karl IX founded Uleåborg.

Per Brahe (1602 – 1680), the Swedish governor in the eastern part of the kingdom, founded Brahestad, Kuopio, and Villmanstrand.

In 1640, Queen Christina (1626 – 1689) opened the first university in the eastern part of the kingdom – now called the university of Helsingfors.

This ended in 1808 when Russia invaded the Swedish naval fortress Sveaborg, and then occupied Finland for 108 years between 1809 - 1917.

During that period, Kreml demanded the Finns to stop speaking Swedish in favor of a uralic language which was spoken in different forms in the inland, and suppress the cultural influence from Sweden.

Finns who don't speak Swedish (53%) dont know that cinnamon buns (örfil), and meat balls with potatoes arrived to Finland from Sweden.

The same probably goes for renskav.

The second comment was a response on this comment:

to be fair i wouldnt call it swedish either per say, sami has always been the reindeer farmers in the north of fennoscandinavia

To be fair, why do you call the people in the north of Fennoscandia:

1. farmers? Common knowledge: they were nomads. Farmers came from Anatolien via Sardinia to Sweden 5000 years before the present.

2.Sami? Common knowledge is that Nenets (Samoyeds) lived and lived the same lifestyle. People from these groups migrated to Fennoscandia 1500 years after the first farmers arrived in Sweden.

And animal source food was introduced to our species 3.5 million years before the present. On the African continent. That's long before any of the five migrations out of African started.

Ergo. The farmers in the south of Sweden likely ate meat 5000 years before the present. And so did likely the nomads, whether they were Nenets or Sami.

But the potatoes originate from South America, where it had been cultivated since the introduction of the Holocene, and brought to Europa by some of the conquistadors during the 1500s.

Hundred years later, potatoes arrived in Uppsala in Sweden, and were planted in the University garden, now called Linne garden, by professor Olaus Rudbeck (1630 - 1702). Ego. Uppsala, or its close surroundings, was likely the place where potatoes first were mixed with meat, similar to the dish we are discussing.

That’s Swedish to me.

Cinnamon buns arrived from Philadelphia, US, to Åmal in Sweden 1857 (Österberg, 2023).

Read my previous articles on a similar topic:

Nutrition psychology. Are [Swedish] meatballs and mashed potatoes part of the Uralic-Finnish heritage?

Varifrån kommer begreppet örfil som i kanelbulle och när nämndes det för första gången?

Nutrition psychology. Potatoes: The case for Reward sensation, GI/GL and Welfare diseases.

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