Lemin särä

Särä uses only lamb, potatoes and salt. The meat is placed in a long shallow trough carved from a birch log; that trough is called särä and gives the dish its name. The trough goes into a wood-fired oven that has been heated in advance. After the meat has roasted, partially cooked potatoes are added beneath it and the dish returns to the oven. The whole process, including heating the oven, takes about nine hours.

The oven’s heat splits the wood, and särä refers precisely to that split birch trough. Before each use the splits are sealed with a mixture of water and flour, and a trough endures around 25 to 30 bakes. Finland’s inventory of living heritage, which includes Lemi’s särä tradition, records that the oven is the basis of the local cuisine and that the old method of roasting in the trough is becoming rare, while the habit of eating särä remains strong.

According to the tradition told in Lemi, long wooden troughs were used to roast meat in the region a thousand years ago. In the 1950s the Martta homemakers’ association worked to keep the dish alive, and the local heritage association in Lemi took on the same task. In 1972 särä was chosen as one of Finland’s seven wonders.

Särä is served hot, with ohrarieska, a flat barley bread also baked in Lemi, and with homemade beer. The local heritage association prepares the dish in its särä house on some days of the week; check before you go.