Finnish Beef Stew
This beef stew, known as mojakka by many Finnish-Americans, is a favorite dish throughout the cold winter months but especially in celebration of St. Urho’s Day on March 16.
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Eleanor Ostman (in blue apron) and Soile Anderson are the team behind the FFN Lecturer of the Year program “Meet the Finn Cooks.”
Eleanor, who is of Finnish descent, was a longtime food writer for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. She compiled recipes from her columns in two cookbooks, Always on Sunday and Always on Sunday Revisited.
Eleanor shares a favorite recipe for mojakka, a Finnish beef stew, and the story behind it:
My mother made both meat and fish mojakka, and she used peppercorns, whole allspice and bay leaf.
In my book, Always on Sunday, I printed the winning recipe from a mojakka contest held in 1989 at the Iron Range Interpretive Center in Chisholm on Minnesota’s Iron Range (I grew up in nearby Hibbing, Minnesota). The event was the First International Mojakka Cookoff during Finnish Ethnic Day At Ironworld USA.
The winner was Elma Salmi of Chisholm, who made the beef stew every week of her working career as a cook at Pyrinto, the Finnish boarding house in her hometown. She met her husband, Neil, at the boarding house, and she said he “tumbled” the first time he tasted her mojakka and rye flatbread.
True mojakka, Salmi said after winning the contest, is made just plain. Some cooks add celery and tomatoes, which offends her. Salmi’s one nod to “fancy” cooking is liberal use of allspice. When the Duluth newspaper printed her recipes and indicated that Salmi used whole peppercorns, she was not willing to go that far. “Just regular ground pepper,” she said.
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One of the contest’s other prize winners did something no old-time Finn cook would think of — browning the meat. Browning beef isn’t a bad idea and likely gives the mojakka more flavor, but true mojakka is just boiled beef and vegetables.
My mother’s version might have had one rutabaga, making up the difference with more potatoes, but here is Elma Salmi’s “just plain” version.
MOJAKKA
Serves 4
2 quarts water
1/2 pound (or more) beef
soup bone
10 whole allspice
4 small rutabagas, cut up
1 small onion, cut up
2 small carrots, cut up
4 medium potatoes, cut up
salt and pepper to taste
Bring water to a boil. Add beef and soup bone. Cook, skimming the broth occasionally. Remove meat when tender. Add allspice, rutabaga, onion and carrot to the broth. Cook for 30 minutes. Add potatoes. Cut up meat and return to pot. Continue simmering until vegetables are soft. Season to taste.