Bring Out Your Dead

« Kroppkakor, a.k.a. Smålandskroppkakor or body crop cakes, are pork-filled potato dumplings from Southern Sweden. »

Back when I was making spätzle, I wondered about the lack of dumplings in both traditional Finnish foods and even in the more modern array of products available at the local groceries. One person suggested that the absence of dumplings in the more traditional foods might be due to the expense of wheat and that potatoes didn't arrive until late and, even when they did, they weren't immediately popular, neither of which cast too much doubt on my hypothesis that dumplings simply must not be an appealing food for many Finns. It was also suggested that possibly Karelian pies and the Savonian kalakukko might be close enough for jazz in the dumpling category. The kalakukko is somewhat like a giant dumpling so if there were mini versions of it, then it might qualify as a dumpling, but the Karelian pies are open-face pasties filled with rice which, considering there are no rice paddies in eastern Finland, are likely not that traditional if one disqualifies various foods on the basis of cost and availability of ingredients over the past 300 years. Finns had rye, water and eggs to make dough and meat from which to make dumplings and yet, no (filled) dumplings**.

**Technically, there does appear to be one sort of dumpling soup called 'klimppisoppa' that consists of a thin broth served with dropped noodles much like spätzle, with raisins occasionally added to the dumplings for holiday flair. The recipe does not appear in Kotiruoka or any of the older Finnish cookbooks I could find and seems to be a dish limited to a small region. The few mentions of it that I could find with google seemed to indicate that it is not a very well loved dish, too. The plot thickens.

I looked to Sweden where so many of the foods considered traditional and old fashioned originated and I found kroppkakor, potato dumplings filled with pork and onions. I started poking around for them in Finnish cookbooks, especially a few that have been translated from Swedish into Finnish, and found no mention of them in spite of them being in almost every general Swedish cookbook. There were a few moments of comedy when I asked Jarkko what the literal translation to Finnish might be and he seemed confused since the 'kropp', though often translated as 'body'**, makes more sense in the 'corpse' connotation and wondered why I was interested in recycling dead bodies for dinner. Perhaps the Swedes engaged in cannibalism years ago and make these to remind themselves that people are, in fact, the other white meat. Still, even with literal and creative attempts at translation, these dumplings simply did not make the jump along with all the other Swedish foods such as lutefisk. Why lutefisk and not kroppkakor is a very curious bit of food history that no doubt has an interesting story behind it. Does this mean that Finns, and this would include the Swedish-speaking Finns (none of whom I know had ever heard of them), actually like the taste of smelly, gelatinous fish soaked in lye better than pork-filled potato dumplings? Say it isn't so.

**Kroppkakor are often translated as 'body cakes' using the literal modern meaning of the word 'kropp' which can mean either body or corpse. However, neither make much sense when applied to a boiled dumpling. With the help of a very kind Swedish speaker, it appears that the word 'kropp' has an older meaning that makes a lot more sense:

ETYMOLOGI:[till sv. dial. kropp (äv. i avledd form]
kroppa, kroppning), klimp i soppa, blodpalt, sannol. identiskt med KROPP, sbst.⁴; av mnt. krop, kroppe, ett slags bakvärk med fyllning av kött, sannol.urspr.: fylld kräva (i bildl. anv.)]

The etymology of 'kropp' appears to be related to the old German word 'kropf' and English word 'crop' where they refer to a part of a bird's anatomy that is a round pouch in the gullet which stores food for digestion. This seems to be a much more likely source for the name since the dumplings are round pouches filled with meat that are heavy and do take quite a long time to digest. It is no more appetizing than 'body' or 'corpse' but at least the name fits. :)

I figured I had to try making the dumplings to see if they tasted or looked like corpses and maybe find a reason as to why they failed to find a home in Finland. There are two main variants of the recipe; the original version, Ölandskroppkakor, uses shredded raw potatoes and the more modern version, Smålandskroppkakor, uses mashed potatoes. I opted for the mashed potato version since they're less work, produce a smoother dough (and thus a more attractive dumpling) and because we now have such wonders as plentiful chicken eggs, at least until bird flu arrives. There is a third variety that uses corn meal called pitepalt.

My first batch of dough was an utter disaster since I used a slightly dodgy recipe I found on the net. You remember only when you make a batch of potato paste that there is little difference between the nasty, gummy potato dough and wallpaper glue. I then swore off the recipes in English I found on the net and started hunting for recipes in Swedish which resulted in a few that were much, much more successful. Essentially the basic formula should be 1 pound/500g potatoes, 1 egg, and 1 cup/2.5 dl flour which doubles easily.

Like anything that is deceptively simple in appearances, there is more to boiling a potato than just dropping it into boiling water. Cooking the potato without it becoming soggy and/or gluey can easily become a fool's errand. I dislike peeling hot potatoes so I usually peel them first, put them into a pot with water, stick it on a burner and forget about it until it boils over or I begin to smell something burning. I can bake, but basic cooking stuff eludes me. After a couple of batches where the potatoes started to disintegrate in the pot I began to think that there really must be a secret to this task only marginally more complex than boiling water. I found that the potatoes disintegrate when you boil them at too high a boil which causes them to bump around vigorously and break apart. I suppose that this should have been obvious, but what is obvious if not elusive and often overlooked? The starch in the potatoes is a temperamental substance. Try taking a hand blender or a food processor to a boiled potato sometime if you'd like to see just how much fun you can have with starch that has been released from its cells.

Boiling the potatoes with their skins on is best as it will help keep them from becoming soggy which results in using more flour and gummy dough. You'll want to rice/mash them while they are still piping hot so that they can release a bit of moisture through the steam. I was already unnaturally fond of my potato ricer, but when I discovered that you can cut the unpeeled potato in half, drop it cut side down into the hopper and squeeze the potato out without the peel, I wondered where it had been all my life. I've been unable to find anything about the history of this gadget or even how it came to have the unlikely name of 'ricer', but wherever the inventor may be they have my enduring admiration for such an elegantly simple human-powered, multi-purpose kitchen tool. If you make real mashed potatoes with any frequency at all, buy one of these things tomorrow. Julia Child also gushed a bit about her German potato ricer with priceless audio of her extolling its virtues. I'm going say "ssshhoooommmm!" every time I rice a potato from now on. :) Another great masher is the OXO square masher which produces a less gluey texture than the usual squiggly masher.

Once you have the dough prepared, use immediately as it tends to get very gummy and unworkable if left to sit for any amount of time. There are many ways to get to the same meat-filled ball, but the easiest seemed to be the log of dough that is sliced into 12 parts, flattened, filled, sealed and formed into a ball. As for the filling, there are many different variations though allspice does appear to be very common and, frankly, is an often forgotten spice. I tried a few different combinations of fatty pork scraps, bacon and ham and found that using all or mostly ham had a much better colour and flavour than the others. Chopping the filling into a paste with a hand blender made filling and eating the dumplings much easier so I highly recommend it. I've also seen variations using salmon and vegetables that look pretty tempting as well. It might be fun to make a batch of them for halloween and decorate them to look like eyeballs, too. :)

The recipe makes 24 dumplings that will feed you for at least a few days since I'm not sure most mere mortals can consume more than 4-6 of them in one day.

Kroppkakor / Smålandskroppkakor / Body Crop Cakes / Pork-filled Potato Dumplings

Makes: about 24 golf ball-sized dumplings
Time: about 90 minutes
Special tools: potato ricer, big pot for boiling

Filling:

• 1 large onion, diced
• 200g or 7oz meaty or lean bacon
• 200g or 7oz good ham
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• black pepper
• white pepper
• allspice

Dough:

• 1kg or 2 pounds potatoes, boiled and riced/mashed
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 4.75 dl or 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon white pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt

1. For the Filling: Place a bit of butter or olive oil in the bottom of a frying pan and sauté the onion until soft. Add ham and spices to taste. Turn down heat and allow to simmer for about 20 minutes. Allow to cool, transfer to a deep bowl and chop finely to a paste with a hand blender. Set aside or refrigerate overnight for better flavour.
2. For the dumplings: Fill deep pot with cold water and potatoes. Add a generous amount of salt. Bring to a boil, turn down heat and simmer potatoes for about 20-25 minutes. Drain, slice potatoes in half, and place each potato half, cut side down, into a potato ricer, removing the peel from the hopper after ricing each potato or peel with a knife and mash with a hand masher (Do not use hand blender) into a large bowl. Allow the potatoes to cool for 10-15 minutes. Beat eggs lightly and pour over potatoes. Add flour and knead by hand until the dough forms a smooth ball. Use dough immediately.
3. Divide the dough into two parts. On a smooth surface, shape each part of the dough into a long cylinder about 12-inches/30cm long. Slice dough into 12 pieces, each 1-inch/2.5cm wide . Flatten each piece into a circle about 10cm/4-in in diameter. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of filling into the center and proceed to seal the meat inside the dumpling by pulling the dough up in three places and pinching the three seams. Spackle any holes with small bits of extra dough. Gently shape the dumpling into a ball with your palms. Place finished dumpling on a lightly greased baking sheet and repeat until you have used all the dough. [ see illustration of the whole process of making the dumpling. ]
4. Boil water in a deep pot and gently lower a few dumplings into the water. They are ready when they float to the surface which takes about 5 minutes. Lift out of the water with a slotted spoon (there is a special wooden tool in Sweden just for this task called a kroppkakeslev which is a long-handled wooden spoon with five holes in the spoon to drain the dumplings) and place in a baking dish or serving platter. Keep them warm in the oven until ready to serve. Repeat with all the dumplings until all are cooked. Serve with melted/clarified butter and lingonberry or any other tart red berry jam. You can also refrigerate or freeze them and microwave or pan fry them to reheat. They make excellent leftovers.