Polydish city guide
Best Porkkanalaatikko in San Francisco
“A traditional Finnish Christmas casserole where mashed carrots meet cream, rice, and nutmeg, baked until tender.”
What the real thing tastes like
Porkkanalaatikko (or, in Swedish, morotslåda, both meaning 'carrot casserole') is a traditional Finnish dish mostly eaten during Christmas. The main ingredients are mashed carrots, mixed with boiled rice or barley, and liquid (usually milk or cream). Butter and eggs may be mixed into the mash, which may also be flavoured with sugar, salt, white pepper and grated nutmeg. The mash is put in a casserole dish and baked in the oven. The carrots need not necessarily be boiled before baking: they can be grated and mixed raw with the other ingredients. Readymade porkkanalaatikko is also sold in Finnish food stores around the Christmas season, as well as in parts of Sweden with a large ethnically Finnish population. The dish seems to have originated in the nineteenth century.
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Porkkanalaatikko is Finland's answer to the question of what to do with carrots when winter arrives—a creamy, spiced casserole that appears on tables each Christmas with the reliability of snow. Mashed carrots meet rice or barley, cream or milk, then butter and eggs soften the whole thing into something that bakes into gentle comfort. The dish tolerates both the convenience of raw grated carrot and the patience of boiled versions, bending to your kitchen's rhythm.
Order it here when it has
- seasonal availability in stores
- adaptable cooking methods
- aromatic with nutmeg and warm spices
- nineteenth-century pedigree
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