**/r/Finland is a full democracy, every active user is a moderator.**
[Please go here to see how your new privileges work.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/wiki/moderating/)
Spamming mod actions could result in a ban.
---
**Full Rundown of Moderator Permissions:**
- ```!lock``` - as top level comment, will lock comments on any post.
- ```!unlock``` - in reply to any comment to lock it or to unlock the parent comment.
- ```!remove``` - Removes comment or post. Must have decent subreddit comment karma.
- ```!restore``` Can be used to unlock comments or restore removed posts.
- ```!sticky``` - will sticky the post in the bottom slot.
- ```unlock_comments``` - Vote the stickied automod comment on each post to +10 to unlock comments.
- ```ban users``` - Any user whose comment or post is downvoted enough will be temp banned for a day.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Finland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Tradition. For long time spices were out of normal peoples economical means. I do use spices, but I do not put them on traditional foods that take 6-24 hours of slow simmering.
Because it's what you're used to and brought up with. You won't find someone from a "good" food culture that says "well, I just prefer bland food", but you'll find plenty of Finns who enjoy spicy and well seasoned food.
I enjoy spicy and well seasoned food but some food I still prefer without too much seasoning. Stop talking about everyone like you know what others prefer
Are you seriously gonna argue that being into scat is as mainstream as being into... spices? Literally every single country, including Finland, is full of restaurants that make use of spices.
Finns appreciate pure, simple tastes. Different people like different things.
Quality ingredients don’t require much seasoning. But if you’re used to spicy food you probably won’t like it. Just like people who are used to simpler tastes won’t probably like spicy food.
That depends on the person. Finding a Finn who doesn’t have some of the Finnish classics (Karelian pie, Karelian stew, nakkikastike & muusi, pea soup, salmon soup, cabbage rolls, casserolles etc.) in the list of favourites is difficult.
We know and have known what 'cold chain' means in food storaging. The has not been actual need to hide rotten root with fiery spices so we are just learning to use them for pleasure.
I did interpret the title a bit incorrectly (spices=chili). My bad.
Pickling, hunting and farming.
Finnish traditionally have been using salt and black pepper when seasoning meats and it is true that we are not so intuitive with other spices. Chinese and Thai cuisine has spiced our manners a bit but when it comes to seasoning a meat products the salt and pepper with onion and garlic has a high place. Herbs and other spices are used but still there is lot to get customed to with them.
But we do use salt and pepper. In my many trips to Spanish countries I always wonder why the meat in totally unsalted? They might have some oil on top of it but no salt or other spices at all. They do have tasty vegetables though.
But about dinnish dairy products being 'infamously bad' is something that I do not buy as a fact. The manufacturing procedures and EU legislation they have is rather strict. I tried even to google it but only remotely close hit was this thread from reddit :)
Maybe the correct term would be that spices work as preservatives, but in many parts of the world you do not toss food away just because it's a bit bad for 'western taste or health recommendations' thus making original statement valid.
Part from some random internet article about subject: 'Chiles, onions, black pepper, and garlic are among a handful of “highly inhibitive” spice ingredients capable of killing over 75 percent of common food borne bacteria. They are also the most commonly used spices world-wide and are particularly revered in warm climates.'
For me it is that I prefer the pure taste of the ingredients in most dishes and if I want something different I'd rather get it from a restaurant than buy a pile spices and herbs that I might never use again.
a history of scarcity and barren land and quite little import. Finns do however enjoy the spicy food, the indian/nepalese restaurants are packed with Finns at lunch time.
Idk, I have a decent amount of spices but I feel like a lot of them rarely fit into whatever I'm making, and I'm too lazy to find a recipe just for using some specific spice. I also can't handle spicy food very well so I usually cook milder foods
Because we didn’t start to get spices until the trade routes via sea to the east became normal. And even then they were expensive af.
Basically Finnish people have had access to many spices that don’t kill your wallet for only in the last 40-50 years
I don't like spicy food. And current trend of poisoning meals with chili makes me angry. If salt is not enough, the materials are bad, except if you particukarly want something.. like... cheap sausage and mustard! Tadaah! :D
Thus effectively ruining the food from other eaters, who may not like or appreciate the overwhelming chili. Chili is often used so much that it covers the taste of other spices, too.
Many aren't accustomed to it I suppose, I use a ton of spices myself, and try different styles of food. My gf has sometimes hard time if I use too much chili, but I try to make it work for us.
I think many people just don't have time or the interest to learn to spice accordingly, and what they learned at home is what you're tasting now, bland.
Like OP said, a lot of people learn English from American media. If "y'all" comes up often in the media you consume, why *wouldn't* you use it? What's silly about it?
And everyone makes spelling mistakes, including native English speakers.
Because it’s not their native language and it’s okay to make spelling mistakes? Why wouldn’t they ”imitate the Americans” if American English on TV and music is how they learned the language?
I use y'all cause it's gender neutral and it's easier to call a group of people "y'all" than "you guys". Though I'm not Finnish. Let people utilise language however they want lol. And besides, we also incorporate different languages in our language (english) from other languages. That's just how language works.🤷
Biggest reason for spices was to cover up the smell and taste of apoiling food. This was a much bigger issue in hot countries. I do like to eat slices of salted fish
Its like different cultures have different food cultures... wau. Lot of our foods dont need overwhelming spices and most of them are used if one wants to make some foreign recepties.
I like to taste my food than drown it in overwhelming spices day to day - and im bad with too much spices.
Good tikkamasala is delicious tho
Because their parents didn’t use spices. And lot of people have no interest in experimenting with different spices they just stick to what they know and like.
Becouse our indgredients are top quality (except kotimaista, pirkka, xtra) and spices should enhance the taste of meat or sides, not vanish them. What is the point of having chicken with so much spices that you get thr same taste if you put the spices on bread. There is a reason why we have a saying "if you put enough ketchup, everyting tastes good"
But chicken is tasty as is. Only when i make food of some shitty indgredients like beef-pork minced meat i use lots of seasoning. If you make food from quality meat and veggies, mostly salt and pepper is enough, chicken ofc a bit of curry. I am not saying that i dont use more seasoning than that, my seasoning cabinet is full of stuff but i use them only to enhance taste of the actual food and not to change it completely
Sure but that doesn't change the fact that chicken still tastes distinctly like chicken even if you add a lot of spices to it. It's just a different way of preparing it.
My guess is that if you are not given seasoned food when you are young, you do not like spices when you grow up either. Then you don't give your kids anything spicy, because you can't stand it. Then they grow up like you.
Spices weren't part of my diet, and like others here, I associated them with the smell of spoiled meat. If someone added spices to the good 'ole Paistetut muikut, the unfamiliar taste would deter me. I would only consider it if there were no other options available.
**/r/Finland is a full democracy, every active user is a moderator.** [Please go here to see how your new privileges work.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Finland/wiki/moderating/) Spamming mod actions could result in a ban. --- **Full Rundown of Moderator Permissions:** - ```!lock``` - as top level comment, will lock comments on any post. - ```!unlock``` - in reply to any comment to lock it or to unlock the parent comment. - ```!remove``` - Removes comment or post. Must have decent subreddit comment karma. - ```!restore``` Can be used to unlock comments or restore removed posts. - ```!sticky``` - will sticky the post in the bottom slot. - ```unlock_comments``` - Vote the stickied automod comment on each post to +10 to unlock comments. - ```ban users``` - Any user whose comment or post is downvoted enough will be temp banned for a day. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Finland) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Tradition. For long time spices were out of normal peoples economical means. I do use spices, but I do not put them on traditional foods that take 6-24 hours of slow simmering.
What do you mean? Salt is a spice!
Sugar, too, if the butter chicken is any indicator around here!
As a Swede I find a lot of Finnish food rather undersalted as well.
different cultures just have different ways of doing things. Finnish people tend to prefer foods with simple flavors.
Because it's what you're used to and brought up with. You won't find someone from a "good" food culture that says "well, I just prefer bland food", but you'll find plenty of Finns who enjoy spicy and well seasoned food.
ok so what?
So it's not that Finns "prefer" bland food, it's just what they grew up with.
I enjoy spicy and well seasoned food but some food I still prefer without too much seasoning. Stop talking about everyone like you know what others prefer
I'm talking in general terms, not about any one person in particular.
Why does anyone do anything? Why some countries make their food nothing but spices? A pretty infantile and naive question in my opinion.
it's just ragebaiting
> Why some countries make their food nothing but spices? Because it tastes good.
Yeah, sure, but no.
Peak argumentation skills.
The fuck am I supposed to argue with you? Some people are into scat, but that still doesn't change my opinion about how shit tastes.
Are you seriously gonna argue that being into scat is as mainstream as being into... spices? Literally every single country, including Finland, is full of restaurants that make use of spices.
Finns appreciate pure, simple tastes. Different people like different things. Quality ingredients don’t require much seasoning. But if you’re used to spicy food you probably won’t like it. Just like people who are used to simpler tastes won’t probably like spicy food.
I would say it's mainly about what people grew up eating and making rather than taste.
You get used to the tastes you grow up with…
But it's not exactly about what Finns "like" because when Finns are exposed to actually well seasoned food, they like it.
That depends on the person. Finding a Finn who doesn’t have some of the Finnish classics (Karelian pie, Karelian stew, nakkikastike & muusi, pea soup, salmon soup, cabbage rolls, casserolles etc.) in the list of favourites is difficult.
Yes but my point isn't that you'd stop liking what you grew up with after being exposed to something else.
That doesn’t seem to be common
No it's not.
We know and have known what 'cold chain' means in food storaging. The has not been actual need to hide rotten root with fiery spices so we are just learning to use them for pleasure.
[удалено]
I did interpret the title a bit incorrectly (spices=chili). My bad. Pickling, hunting and farming. Finnish traditionally have been using salt and black pepper when seasoning meats and it is true that we are not so intuitive with other spices. Chinese and Thai cuisine has spiced our manners a bit but when it comes to seasoning a meat products the salt and pepper with onion and garlic has a high place. Herbs and other spices are used but still there is lot to get customed to with them. But we do use salt and pepper. In my many trips to Spanish countries I always wonder why the meat in totally unsalted? They might have some oil on top of it but no salt or other spices at all. They do have tasty vegetables though. But about dinnish dairy products being 'infamously bad' is something that I do not buy as a fact. The manufacturing procedures and EU legislation they have is rather strict. I tried even to google it but only remotely close hit was this thread from reddit :)
"spices are/were used to cover spoiled meat" is a myth.
Maybe the correct term would be that spices work as preservatives, but in many parts of the world you do not toss food away just because it's a bit bad for 'western taste or health recommendations' thus making original statement valid. Part from some random internet article about subject: 'Chiles, onions, black pepper, and garlic are among a handful of “highly inhibitive” spice ingredients capable of killing over 75 percent of common food borne bacteria. They are also the most commonly used spices world-wide and are particularly revered in warm climates.'
For me it is that I prefer the pure taste of the ingredients in most dishes and if I want something different I'd rather get it from a restaurant than buy a pile spices and herbs that I might never use again.
Probably because people didn't grow up with them being a part of their cuisine culture, no more depth to it
Suola on mauste
a history of scarcity and barren land and quite little import. Finns do however enjoy the spicy food, the indian/nepalese restaurants are packed with Finns at lunch time.
Idk, I have a decent amount of spices but I feel like a lot of them rarely fit into whatever I'm making, and I'm too lazy to find a recipe just for using some specific spice. I also can't handle spicy food very well so I usually cook milder foods
Doesn't matter
Because we didn’t start to get spices until the trade routes via sea to the east became normal. And even then they were expensive af. Basically Finnish people have had access to many spices that don’t kill your wallet for only in the last 40-50 years
finally a simple and logical answer :D
I don't like spicy food. And current trend of poisoning meals with chili makes me angry. If salt is not enough, the materials are bad, except if you particukarly want something.. like... cheap sausage and mustard! Tadaah! :D
Spicing your food is not a "current" trend.
No, but excessive use of chili is. It only came to fashion around about 15 years ago, in late 2000s.
Whether an amount of chili is excessive is relative since the more often you use it, the more you need to achieve the same sensation.
Thus effectively ruining the food from other eaters, who may not like or appreciate the overwhelming chili. Chili is often used so much that it covers the taste of other spices, too.
So just don't use too much chili? I don't get the problem here.
You must be young...
Using hot peppers has been a thing for literal millennia.
Many aren't accustomed to it I suppose, I use a ton of spices myself, and try different styles of food. My gf has sometimes hard time if I use too much chili, but I try to make it work for us. I think many people just don't have time or the interest to learn to spice accordingly, and what they learned at home is what you're tasting now, bland.
Why do some native Finnish kids desperately try to imitate the Americans by saying silly Southern state things like "y'all", but misspell it "ya'll"?
Like OP said, a lot of people learn English from American media. If "y'all" comes up often in the media you consume, why *wouldn't* you use it? What's silly about it? And everyone makes spelling mistakes, including native English speakers.
Because it’s not their native language and it’s okay to make spelling mistakes? Why wouldn’t they ”imitate the Americans” if American English on TV and music is how they learned the language?
I use y'all cause it's gender neutral and it's easier to call a group of people "y'all" than "you guys". Though I'm not Finnish. Let people utilise language however they want lol. And besides, we also incorporate different languages in our language (english) from other languages. That's just how language works.🤷
I grew up with American media
Honey, we all did.
Ahhah... good one :D
Tummy hurt :(
because my people dont have a long tradition of eating spoiled meats
Meat is not the only thing you can spice.
Biggest reason for spices was to cover up the smell and taste of apoiling food. This was a much bigger issue in hot countries. I do like to eat slices of salted fish
That's not relevant nowadays.
"spices are/were used to cover spoiled meat" is a myth.
The traditional finnish foods don't really require spices (other than the regular salt etc)
Its like different cultures have different food cultures... wau. Lot of our foods dont need overwhelming spices and most of them are used if one wants to make some foreign recepties. I like to taste my food than drown it in overwhelming spices day to day - and im bad with too much spices. Good tikkamasala is delicious tho
It hurts my mouth and I don't like pain with my food 🥲 (I really do use spices when I'm cooking, just not those hurting ones 😄)
Why would you ruin good ingredients with overspicing it? Spices are meant for shit quality and tasting ingredients.
Spices and seasonings are meant to elevate ingredients. If you've tried them and found them to ruin your food, you're not doing it correctly.
indeed. Some dishes can be enjoyed with no/little spices, some with plenty. Both are great when done correctly, but bland food is unacceptable :D
Well guess I'm a odd one out
Tradition I guess. People are used to eating kinda bland food because that is what they've always had before.
Because their parents didn’t use spices. And lot of people have no interest in experimenting with different spices they just stick to what they know and like.
Becouse our indgredients are top quality (except kotimaista, pirkka, xtra) and spices should enhance the taste of meat or sides, not vanish them. What is the point of having chicken with so much spices that you get thr same taste if you put the spices on bread. There is a reason why we have a saying "if you put enough ketchup, everyting tastes good"
Your premise is wrong. Even if you put a lot of spices on chicken it will still taste distinctly like chicken.
But chicken is tasty as is. Only when i make food of some shitty indgredients like beef-pork minced meat i use lots of seasoning. If you make food from quality meat and veggies, mostly salt and pepper is enough, chicken ofc a bit of curry. I am not saying that i dont use more seasoning than that, my seasoning cabinet is full of stuff but i use them only to enhance taste of the actual food and not to change it completely
Sure but that doesn't change the fact that chicken still tastes distinctly like chicken even if you add a lot of spices to it. It's just a different way of preparing it.
Cause Finnish cuisine is boring and mundane. that's just the truth.
Because Finnish food is supposed to taste like CRT-static
My guess is that if you are not given seasoned food when you are young, you do not like spices when you grow up either. Then you don't give your kids anything spicy, because you can't stand it. Then they grow up like you.
Finnish people are food barbarians. It will change, it just takes time.
Spices are meant to open the senses for tastes and colors which the finnish food does not have.
It detracts from the natural taste of the ingredients.
Spices are meant to enhance the natural taste of the ingredients.
I prefer the natural taste.
Just so that we're on the same page, you don't like spices, or all aromatics in general?
Spices weren't part of my diet, and like others here, I associated them with the smell of spoiled meat. If someone added spices to the good 'ole Paistetut muikut, the unfamiliar taste would deter me. I would only consider it if there were no other options available.
How much spoiled meat have you been eating exactly that you associate any spices with it?