| 1 | Clean the fish, removing fins, large scales and entrails. |
| 2 | You may leave the heads if you dare to eat them. |
| 3 | Mix the flours and salt. |
| 4 | Add the yeast to the water. |
| 5 | When the yeast is fully dissolved, make a thick dough by pouring flour mixture into water and blending well. |
| 6 | The ratio of flour to water depends on the nature of the flours. |
| 7 | This ratio of 1:2 by volume works well in finland with finnish flours. |
| 8 | Where flours contain more gluten you should use slightly less water. |
| 9 | Set aside about 4 t of dough to be used later. |
| 10 | Roll out the remaining dough into a circular shape about ?inch thick. |
| 11 | Assemble the meats into the dough: cover the inner half of the dough circle with half of the pork (the pork should cover a circle whose diameter is half the diameter of the rolled dough). |
| 12 | Then put all of the fish over top of the pork, and add allspice and extra salt if you are using them. |
| 13 | Finish with the second half of the pork. |
| 14 | Preheat oven to 500 °F. |
| 15 | Lift the edges of the dough all around the filling and glue together with a little water so that you have the filling surrounded from all directions with about ?inch-thick dough. |
| 16 | Put upside down (the seam downwards) on a baking sheet and let it rise about half an hour at room temperature. |
| 17 | Put the kalakukko in a 500 °F. |
| 18 | Oven for long enough to brown the dough, which will seal it against moisture. |
| 19 | Then lower the temperature to about 250 °F. |
| 20 | And let it bake for 4 to 7 hours depending on the size of the fish (bigger fish need more cooking time). |
| 21 | You can brush some melted butter over the top of the dough just after lowering the temperature; this will give it a prettier appearance. |
| 22 | If it starts to leak while baking, fill holes with the dough which was set aside. |
| 23 | Serve hot or cold. |
| 24 | Notes: * rye bread pie with fish and pork filling -- this is an ancient national food prepared and eaten in savo (eastern finland). |
| 25 | * kalakukko was used as travelers" food because it stays edible very long when unopened. |
| 26 | Also in medieval times salt was the only way to preserve meat and it was expensive, so with this way you could use all the salt in salt pork. |
| 27 | The word kala-kukko means fish-cock (the bird). |
| 28 | * you can use any small fish (shorter than about 8 inches). |
| 29 | Small scales and spikes don"t matter because they soften during the prolonged cooking. |
| 30 | Make sure you use un-smoked pork. |
| 31 | : difficulty: moderate (some skill with dough is required). |
| 32 | : time: 45 minutes preparation, 30 minutes attended baking, 4-7 hours unattended baking. |
| 33 | : precision: careful measurement not necessary, but the consistency of the dough (which will depend on the nature of your flours) is important. |
| 34 | If the dough is either too soft or too hard, the kalakukko will leak. |
