How to pronounce Särä

In the International Phonetic Alphabet it is /ˈsæræ/. In plain English letters that is SA-ra (a as in cat), with the stress on the syllable in capitals. There is no recording by a native speaker yet, so use the spelling and the IPA.

What is Särä?

Särä is a main dish of Finland. Where it comes from: Lemi (South Karelia). People usually eat it at lunch or dinner and on festive days. Its main ingredients are lamb and potato. It tastes savory and rich.

Where Särä comes from

Särä is one of 20 signature dishes of Finland on this map.

• Karelian pasty karjalanpiirakka · Bread & pastry · Karelia

  Karjalanpiirakka, the Karelian pasty, has a thin rye crust crimped by hand around a filling of rice porridge, sometimes barley or mashed potato, and is baked in a very hot oven.

• Lohikeitto · Soup & stew · Coast and lakes

  Lohikeitto is a salmon soup: pieces of salmon simmered with potatoes, leeks or onions and allspice, finished with cream or milk and a lot of chopped dill.

• Kalakukko · Bread & pastry · Savonia (Kuopio)

  Kalakukko is a loaf of thick rye bread with fish baked inside it, usually small vendace (muikku) or perch, with pork fat.

• Karelian hot pot karjalanpaisti · Main dish · Karelia

  Karjalanpaisti, Karelian hot pot, is a meat stew from the region of Karelia.

• Sultsina · Snack · North Karelia

  Sultsina is a Karelian pastry, a cross between a crêpe and a flatbread, traditionally made in Ladoga Karelia and North Karelia.

• Lörtsy · Street food · Savonlinna (South Savo)

  Lörtsy is a thin, flat, half-moon pastry from Savonlinna in eastern Finland, and today it is seen as a Savonlinna dish above all.

Food of Finland

Dishes like Särä in other countries

Same type of dish and similar main ingredients as Särä:

• Baeckeoffe · Main dish · Alsace, France

  Baeckeoffe is a slow-baked casserole from Alsace whose name means "baker's oven" in the Alsatian dialect.

• Lancashire hotpot · Main dish · Lancashire, United Kingdom

  Lancashire hotpot is mutton or lamb and onions, covered with overlapping slices of potato and baked slowly in a tall lidded pot until the top is brown and crisp and the meat underneath has softened in its stock.

• Pinnekjøtt · Main dish · Western Norway, Norway

  Pinnekjøtt, 'stick meat', is salted and dried lamb or mutton ribs, the festive Christmas dinner of Western and Northern Norway that has spread to other regions.

• Irish stew stobhach Gaelach · Main dish · Countryside, Ireland

  Irish stew was a meal of poor country homes: mutton, often from an older sheep, simmered for hours in one pot with potatoes, onions and water, with little else.