“- Bring in the soup! It’s party time!”
The year is 1971 and the very first ‘Kalas på Stundars’ has just began. The traditional folk music is playing, the dinner guests are placed at long tables, and the happy chatter is loud. There is excitement in the air. What is going to happen? Suddenly, there is hooting and hollering and a large party of dancers in traditional Ostrobothnian folk costumes carries in steaming bowls of soup. Bon Appetit!
The big festivities arranged at Stundars in the 1970’s gathered thousands of visitors from near and far, and they very much contributed to making the relatively unknow Stundars into a place known far and wide. Stundars was even selected one of Finland’s seven tourist wonders!
Text: Maria Österåker in the book ”Stundars” from 2013
During our celebration year 2023, visitors have the opportunity to book the Jubilee guided tour. Then we’ll tell you more about the parties. You can read more about our guided tours here.
Klimpsoppan or ”the Nugget Soup” Topp
This traditional Finnish course is a kind of meat and vegetable soup – with the addition of wheat “nuggets” that are boiled in the soup. In older times, this was party food indeed, usually followed by a sweet barley grain porridge. At all the bigger events at Stundars, klimpsoppa is still served, either cooked over open fires or in the Restaurant Hemmer. But why not try your culinary skills at making it yourself? The folk costume is optional.
The recipe for Stundars klimpsoppa has been secret for a long time, and it has been stored only in the brain of the main Nugget Soup Cook, Marianne Räfsbäck. It actually took some deep thought and an ounce of anxiety before the Stundars regular cooks dared to make it public knowledge, at the same time as they naturally wanted our country to be filled with smacking gums and full stomachs. Just like with so many other chores that have been done for a long time and that you can do almost blindfolded by now, it has indeed been a challenge to turn the procedures into a real recipe. Because how do you describe the feeling when the nuggets are solid enough, when the amount of salt in the cup of your hand is correct and when the soup looks ready? How do you turn a sense of proportions into decilitres and number of carrots? Well, here’s their try:
Stundars’ Nugget Soup for 30-40 persons Topp
Day 1:
5 kilos of soup meat including bones
250 grams of sea salt
Rub the salt into the meat and store it in the refrigerator
Day 2:
1 bag of yellow peas
10 carrots
2 turnips
2 leeks
½ kilo of yellow onions
1 small bag of allspice/pimento in a bag made of airy fabric
1½ kg potatoes in halves
Parsley
Salt
Water
Nugget dough
1 litre of whole milk
2 eggs
1 package of raisins
Salt
Sugar
Ca 1,8 kilos of wheat flour of good quality
The authentic Stundars’ Nugget Soup is made in an iron pot over an open fire. The earliest risers of the cooks at Stundars used to put their alarm clocks at 4:30 am to make the fire, a fire that will be fed evenly until noon, when the soup was served. This is what is called slow cooking! We who will cook this delicious soup at home have an easier time of it. But there are certainly things we too have to remember. The meat should be salted the day before, using coarse salt crystals. Then the meat should be washed twice before boiling it whole along with the bag of allspice. In the real Stundars’ Nugget Soup there is no need for added broth. Neither does it have to be real soup meat with bones and marrows, it’s not necessary for the flavour. Also remember to make the dough for the nuggets 2-3 hours before the nuggets are supposed to go into the soup, giving the dough time to really swell.
Rinse the peas and pour some of the hot water from the meat over them and let them soak for a while. When the soup has boiled long enough to make the meat almost tender, put in the peas and chopped root vegetables and onions. Take up the meat from the pot, let it cool for a bit and cut it into cubes. When the root vegetables have boiled for a while, you add the nugget dough in pats with a tablespoon. Stir carefully every now and then so the nuggets won’t clump together or stick to the bottom of the pot. Finally, you add the boiled meat and salt. When the soup is done, sprinkle some parsley on top of it. Good luck!
