Noux

Posted by Sari

Last week-end the weather was just so lovely that when my sister called and asked if I wanted to go camping for a night in Nuuksio, the national park next door, I surprised myself by saying yes. Of course, others had hit upon the same idea so we had to hike little further than we originally thought to find a free camp-site. It was too dry* to make fire, so we cooked with trangia and sat by the pond enjoying tea and gorgeous sunset. Next morning we took a shorter route back and stopped to grill sausages at Mustalampi cooking site.

The topics of conversation included
1) The geography of the old West and the newest reserach on Donner party.
2) How to film Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, and the revival of Hapgood in NY with Stockard Channing
3) The possibility of building a base for a lean-to at our summer cottage
4) The unique position John Clute occupies in the field of SF critique
5) G.B. Shaw's Arms and the Man

A good time was had by all. And I have to say that the fact you can take public transportation from the centre of Finland's capital and be in "the wilderness" in an hour is way beyond cool.

* There is a Finnish word "metsäpalovaroitus", familiar from the summer-time weather reports. The only translation my dictionary offers is "prohibition on lighting fire in the open due to danger of forest fire". Honestly, there must be a better way to say this in English...

Pictures are at Flickr

Comments

[Mekku]

Don't forget the erudite discussion on the advantages and disadvantages in scoring your barbeque sausages. I thought that was one of the real high points... :-)

[Sari]

True, the cases for and against were both well argued :-)

[Veriveli]

What's wrong with "Forest Fire Warning"? The Finnish word doesn't say more, either.

Ai niin: tsemppiä synttärin johdosta vielä näin jälkikäteenkin.

[Tero]

So, when can we all benefit from the results of your barbeque sausage discussion?

[jukkahoo]

Now, the problem (as I see it) is that Sari eats what she calls "Real"(TM) sausage where the main ingredient is flour. So if you are (and I'm afraid you are) one of those ruffians that think that sausage is found at them bakery section of the supermarket instead of being bought straight out of the butcher, still dripping blood, this discussion maybe of interest.

Now, sausage as defined by Halme-Ahlström-Latikka Culinary Institute is made of a) meat, with preferably some b) added meat and most importantly c) meat.

[Mekku]

Ah - but there is also the deeper question of whether
a) you should make little incisions on the skin of the sausage to prevent bursting during cooking, or whether
b) the whole point of barbequing sausages is doing it in a temperature so perfect that the sausage will cook through without the fat boiling over and ripping the skin, or
c) those rips are the whole point of eating barbeque sausages and if you manage to create the culinary delight of a layer of soot on your sausage in the process, all the better.

Would this be the place for another poll? Results to be announced by Midsummer...

[Sari]

Meat, meat, meat... If you want to eat meat, eat meat! Why ruin the taste of beef or pork by stuffing it in a sausage? Just have a stake instead. Sausages should taste like that king of sausages HK-bleu :-)

[Marko]

On se aina vaan niin hassua kuinka jotkut koittavat nimittää epämääräisiä leivonnaisia makkaroiksi. Toki leivonnaisillakin on paikkansa, mutta makkaroiden pääraaka-aine on kyllä edelleenkin LIHA.

[Omppu]

Meat - mmmmm....!

I'm all for the skin-bursting-in-heat -kind of sausageheating (preparing? frying?). Also the layer of charcoal on a slightly cool and unbaked innards of a sausage is a classic, but personally I prefer the more evenly heated type.

[Johan Anglemark]

Eldningsförbud in Swedish. If you're looking for a 1-1 translation, there won't be one, because English doesn'ty have a single word for "making a fire".

[Ben]

"Varning för skogsbrand" in real Swedish ;) (not some western variant).

And talking about sausages, those should of course be eaten unheated. ;) But I have to admit that my taste has changed a bit during the years and for example yesterday I ate a very good "sauna sausage" heated in an aluminium bag on the sauna stove (the way sauna sausages should be prepared). The meat content was something like 70% which maybe isn't enough for some of you and probably too much for the rest, but I would definitely recommend Korpelan palvilenkki (the website has very close to no information, but I though I'd put in the link anyway).

[Teemu]

Funny, by the way, that in Finnish "Metsäpalovaroitus" literally does not forbid anything. It is merely a warning that the risk for forest fire is high. Implication in practice is, naturally, same as in "Eldningsförbud".

Sausages, then, are more a philosophical question. I must say that I agree with the Halme et al faction in this matter, although I admit that the amount of meat in a sausage can be quite small and one can still call it as a sausage. At least in Finland: I'm sure that Germans (nation with slightly longer tradition with sausages than the Finns have) would disagree with my liberal interpretation. Entschuldigung Sie Bitte!

[Tero]

Variety is the spice of sausage – along with salt and the occasional jalapeno, of course. Anything from the “proper flour sausages” to the more meaty “normal” ones to bratwurst and chorizos goes. “HK Blue” though… it’s an abomination that should be abolished from the face of this Earth!

[Mekku]

Pictures of the proposed lean-to (see original message, section 3) now available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/merjame/sets/72057594136374909/. Whaddya think? Does that view call for a barbequed sausage or what?

[Mekku]

I should add that I was much too ill to take such good pictures; their genius lies with my sister.

[Hil]

Hi Sari. I have to admit that Lordi brought me here ;-P. In Australia we have 'high fire risk days' and 'total fire ban days'. Would either of those do?
Cheers,
Hil

[Sari]

Hil :-)

Oh, Lordi got me few years back with their (first?) big hit which had the lyrics:
"would you love a monsterman
could you understand
the beuty of the beast"

I just thought that was pretty poetic from guys in latex.

Sari

[Hil]

LOL!