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About the Tribe
Sámi live across four nation states (Norway, Finland, Sweden and Russia) and although their territories have been altered irrevocably in the last century, wherever they live, the rhythm of life for the reindeer herders, hunters and gatherers of Sápmi remains largely unchanged. Sámi remain largely connected to the seasons, and the lifecycle of the reindeer and the plants and animals and fish upon which their Indigenous food system is built. Reindeer are a totemic species for the Sámi and the herding, slaughtering, preparation and consuming of reindeer meat, along with a widespread consumption of lake and ocean fish are major ingredients of Sámi cuisine in all countries in which they live.
Importance of Animal Products
How to slaughter a reindeer using traditional Sami knowledge
by Issát Turi
Slaughtering a reindeer in the traditional way means doing it in such a way that you can make use of the whole animal: for food, clothing, medicinal purposes and the many other things you can derive from the animal. When thinking traditionally, multiple decisions need to be made when choosing a reindeer to slaughter. You need to look at the animals’ gender, age and even fur color. These varied and complex decisions are underpinned by the need to maintain a diverse and strong herd, in case of harsh winter conditions. A diverse herd will be more resilient and give us herders more flexibility when dealing with unexpected climate events. Preserving meat The traditional way of slaughtering is also a matter of food safety. When you slaughter out in the tundra then you need to know what steps will best take care of your meat and avoid the growth of unwanted bacteria. Traditionally we have started with what we call giehtadit, which is to kill the animal with a knife right into the heart. This way, the reindeer will bleed out from inside the chest cavity after which we let the reindeer baggat, which means we let it rest and ‘inflate’ itself. The amount of time you let the reindeer baggat depends on the season, the weather and the temperature before you start to skin it. The Sámi concept of baggan is both about food safety and flavor enhancement. The baggan process makes the meat tender and juicy. This also has the effect of loosening the skin so you are not touching the meat so much during the slaughter. This is ‘on the land’ food safety where the traditional way of slaughtering may be the best way. Only after you have let the reindeer baggat, do you start to skin the reindeer. The traditional way of skinning a reindeer is doing it in such a way that you can make use of the whole hide. This way you can also use the legs and skin of the head for clothing. However, there are important seasonal differences. You slaughter calves in late July or early August for beaskanáhkki and then you use the whole skin to sew the traditional winter garment, which is called beaska. When you need a warmer beaska - such as when you need to watch over your herd during winter nights - then you slaughter later in the autumn, when the hair of the reindeer has grown longer. After you have skinned the reindeer you take out the intestines with which you make your blood sausages and then you open the chest cavity where the blood has already coagulated and has already separated. This way you will get the best blood for márffit (blood sausages) or guhpárat (meat balls made with blood). After that, you cut the meat up in a way that is not only the best way of preserving the meat but also a way in which you get the most out of the reindeer, in terms of food.
Sámi cuisine does not take shape in the ‘kitchen’, but really starts at the moment when and where the reindeer is slaughtered, the condition of the reindeer in the days and weeks before it was slaughtered and finally how it was killed. Mális is another important part of Sámi food culture and mális means to cook the meat with just water and salt. Then the quality of the meat is very important, as the reindeer must be fat. Because reindeer meat is not marbled, this means that the more fat it has on the outside, the higher the quality of the meat is. Meat quality is also determined by how you kill the animal.
SUOVASTUHTTIT: USING FIRE AND SMOKE TO PRESERVE REINDEER MEAT by Rávdná Biret Márjá Eira Sara, Inger Marie Gaup Eira, Kia Krarup Hansen, Inger Anita Smuk, Issát Turi, and Astrid Riddervold
Sámi reindeer herder’s traditional knowledge about meat security and meat conservation is rich and deep. These are technologies developed over millennia, which secure the sustainable and safe use of animals for food production. The renowned Norwegian philologist Konrad Nielsen who compiled the exhaustive Sámi language dictionaries in the late 1920s and 30s refers to suovas as the smoke fire - the fire that gives smoke for smoking, explaining the characteristics of the fire. Suovasbiergu means «smoked meat», while suovastuhttit is the Sámi term for the technique or practice of smoking meat and fish. Suovastuhttit is little documented, but is in daily use in reindeer herding communities across Sápmi. Reindeer herder’s knowledge of smoking meat integrates the understanding of selecting the right type of animals for slaughtering, at the right season of the year and using specific parts of the reindeer. Further knowledge includes; the correct use of salt and moisture generated from selecting the specific plants and firewood. This produces a specific and dense white smoke, which penetrates the meat tissue without the use of too high temperatures. The type of plants used and how long the smoking takes place (could be 3-6 hours), determines the degree of conservation and taste. A lack of traditional knowledge about the process of suovastuhttit might affect human health and wellbeing. The combined antibacterial effects of the components of salt and smoke protect the meat from degradation. Even today with modern deep freeze technologies, suovastuhttit is still practiced and the characteristic flavour of suovasbiergu is preferred in the Sámi household.
HOW TO MAKE A FAMILY MEAL – SÁMI FOOD KNOWLEDGE AND TRADITIONS by Máret Rávdná Buljo
The Sámi ‘family meal’ is not only the center of a family coming and sharing food together. In fact, as described here, it’s not a ‘meal’ as might be understood by many, where people sit down at a certain time each day and have dinner. Life with reindeer means movement, especially in Spring and Autumn. Someone is always with the reindeer. Sometimes the whole family can be with the reindeer. Living with reindeer means your life is lived according to the rhythm of the animals. So, to describe a ‘family meal’, is really a description of the collective journey of reindeer, people and food. The family meal starts with choosing a reindeer to slaughter, how it is slaughtered, how it is processed and deciding who gets to eat which specific part of the animal. The family meal, is also a means by which important knowledge is transferred across generations about animals, health and food safety, based on the raw materials available. Creating the family meal requires a considerable amount of knowledge and time and involves many members of the family. Making it takes time. The meal might not be ready at a certain time, but there is so much to be done and often many people to do it. During this time of preparation, stories are told, knowledge is shared and children learn the useful life skill of work and self-sufficiency. During preparation time guests may appear unannounced. They are to be made welcome, and they too shall find food and warmth. A ‘family meal’ is really about the coming and going of family life, and this is not possible to create or recreate in a modern industrial slaughterhouse. I grew up in Guovdageaidnu in a reindeer herding family in a village where most people are Sámi, speak Sámi and have some direct or indirect connection to reindeer husbandry. I now live on the coast of Norway and herding and the preparation and eating of reindeer products remains at the heart of our daily life. When we make a ‘family meal’, although we never called it that, there are many steps and observances along the way to making it, codes of etiquette that need to be observed. I learned them from my immediate and extended family and now teach them to my own children. The preparations and observances start with the slaughter of the reindeer. After slaughtering a reindeer, the spine is the first part that is used to make a family meal, and for reindeer herders it is the best meat. It is regarded as almost holy. The spine is taken immediately after slaughtering and is usually cut up in joints and put into a pot for boiling. The large dorsal sinew (sávvosuotna) is removed when the carcass is still whole. This sinew is very good for sewing a coat made of reindeer fur or making nice handicrafts with small and neat stiches. Our family tradition is that certain parts of the spine are designated for the different family members. The tail (bieža) is for the butcher, the sacrum (gánis) is for the person who took care of the intestines (usually mother or a female person). The vertebrae (ruossadávttit) are for father and the other adults, and the vertebrae in the middle (gaskačielgedávttit) are for the youth. The vertebrae on the spine shoulder (sehpodatdávttit) are for smaller children because it is easy for a child to hold the bone. Kidneys (moninčalmmit), spleen (dávdi), blood sausages (márffit) and small intestines (sáhppasat) are boiled together with the spine. The broth acquires the varying taste of these different parts. Importantly, these parts replace vegetables with regards to vitamins. We drink the broth and dip the meat in it. The fat layer on the top of the broth is skimmed off, to be used as a separate dip. Spine and broth are a natural medicine for treating a wide variety of different sicknesses and spine broth is seen as the most valuable broth from a reindeer. Fresh reindeer meat does not need to be boiled for more than 20 minutes for it to become tender. If boiled for longer, the meat becomes hard, and then you have to boil the meat for at least another hour until it becomes tender again. The spleen is very good food for young babies, being good ‘food training’ and being easy for a baby to suck.
Blood sausages and small intestines are also a part of the family meal. These should be shared so that every family member gets a piece of the different tasting blood sausages. Also small intestines should be shared. This has been done from ancient times and was a way to ensure that everyone got all the vitamins and minerals from the food eaten by the reindeer. The names of the blood sausages are: Čeaksa (omasum), doggi (abomasum), maŋŋebuoidi (rectum), gahpárus (duodenum), guopmolággá (appendix), čalmmás (reticulum), seakkaguopmolággá (the thinner/smaller part of appendix) and čalmmásnjálbmi (opening of the reticulum). Also according to our practice, the upper marrowbones (čuožžemas) of the back legs were for father, the lower marrowbones of the back legs (njiehcehas) were for mother, the lower marrowbones of the front legs (vuorgu) were for the smallest children and the upper marrowbones of the front legs (dábbá) were for the older children in the family. According to this way, every member of the family got the pieces of the animal that gave them the most necessary nutrients. Not all families are alike of course and traditions and customs vary from region to region, from siida to siida. In some families I have heard that blood sausages made from the omasum are for males only. These stories, traditions and etiquette have much to teach us about a healthy relationship between people, animals and food.
For milennia Sámi food consisted of meat (in winter) and fish (in summer). In the past, when hunting played a more significant role, wild reindeer meat was also consumed. Reindeer husbandry became the main source of meat food for the Kola Sámi by the end of the 1800s, as hunting had already reduced game stocks. Reindeer meat was boiled, sun-dried, frozen and less often – salted. Among the Kola Sámi, there is almost no evidence of raw meat eating. As early as the 16thC it was recorded that Sámi had acquired the habit of boiling food and that even by that time they already slightly preferred fried meat to raw. By the late 19th and early 20thC, reindeer meat was usually served as a soup seasoned with rye flour, salt and ground berries (crowberries and cloudberries). People ate the meat first and then drank the remaining broth. However, for centuries Kola Sámi have consumed raw frozen meat, slicing it finely for eating. This is called stroganina, and is a wellknown dish among many northern reindeer herding peoples. While Sámi in what we today call the Nordic countries widely used reindeer milk to make cheese, Kola Sámi do not appear to have milked their reindeer to any large extent. In addition to reindeer meat and fish, in winter Kola Sámi ate poultry, mainly grouse, which they usually boiled in soup and sometimes fried. All parts of reindeer were consumed, except the lungs, which were given to the dogs. Kidneys, slightly seasoned with salt, were put on a stone in front of the fireplace and thus cooked. Liver was used for frying. Brains, heart, tongue, stomach and brisket were considered special delicacies. Sámi also liked fresh reindeer blood, which they drank for its medicinal purposes. To prepare kholodets with reindeer tongues, we need reindeer hooves and tongues. Clean the reindeer hooves thoroughly, and place in cold water. Change the water after 6 hours. Place the soaked hooves in a casserole and cover with water, add meat and bring to the boil. Then decrease the temperature and cook on a low heat for 8 hours. For preparation of dishes with reindeer tongue, it is important to soak it in cold water for several hours. Then the broth will be light and clean. 1.5 hours prior to the end of cooking, add a reindeer tongue, then (over the last 20 minutes) add peppercorns and a bay leaf, and/or some vegetables and season with salt according to your taste. Take everything out of the casserole, detach meat from bones and if applicable cool the tongue and peel the skin. Serve in bowls, adding garlic and cover with meat broth. Let the dish jellify and serve. Nowadays, kholodets is cooked with a wide range of ingredients. For the meat part of kholodets people use beef, veal, pork, poultry. Any variety of vegetables (carrots, onions, garlic, celery), herbs and spices are used. However, the most important part of meat kholodets remain the trotters or hooves, pork or beef ears and heads. These special ingredients allow the cooking of kholodets without adding gelatin. Kholodets prepared with gelatin becomes «zalivnoye», which is a completely different dish.
For example, North Sámi like to dry reindeer meat, whereas southern Sámi tend to smoke it and then dry it. There are many practical explanations for different regional practices that include access to firewood, the presence of permafrost, and the need for Vitamin C (where reindeer blood is a significant source of vitamins and minerals).
By this time I was heartily tired, and found the refreshment of some cow’s milk, and meat, with a chair to sit upon, very acceptable. I could not but wonder to see my two Laplanders, who had accompanied me during the whole of this day’s tedious walk, one of them fifty years of age, the other upwards of seventy, running and frisking about in sport, though each of them had carried a burthen all the way; not indeed a very heavy one, but, considering the distance, by no means trifling. This set me seriously to consider the question put by Dr. Rosen, “why are the Laplanders so swift-footed?” To which I answer, that it arises not from any one cause, but from the cooperation of many.
Animal food.
It is observable that such of the creation as feed on vegetables, are of a more rigid, though strong, fibre; witness the Stag, the Bull, &c.; while, on the contrary, carnivorous animals, as the Dog, Cat, Wolf, Lion ,&c., are all more flexible. The fact and its cause are both evident. The Laplanders are altogether carnivorous. They have no vegetable food brought to their tables. They now and then indeed eat a raw stalk of Angelica, as we would eat an apple, and occasionally a few leaves of Sorrel; but this, compared with the bulk of their food, is scarcely more than as one to a million. In spring they eat fish, in winter nothing but meat, in summer milk and its various preparations. It may further be remarked, that salted food, which these people do not use, renders the body heavy.
The Laplander is satisfied with a small quantity of food at once. He does not eat his fill at one meal, but takes food from time to time, as he feels inclined.
On the contrary, the peasants of Finland cram themselves with as many turnips, and those of Scania with as much flummery, as their stomachs can possibly receive. The inhabitants of Dalecarlia eat till the body is as tight as a drum. Such people are much better qualified to labour in the cultivation of the ground, than to run over the alps. The Laplanders are always of a thin slender make. I never saw one of them with a large belly. Milk diet also contributes to render them active.
Carl Linnaeus, Lachesis lapponica, or, A tour in Lapland, Vol I., pg. 325-332 (1811, written in 1732)
I never met with any people who lead[Pg 27] such easy happy lives as the Laplanders. In summer they make two meals of milk in the course of the day, and when they have gone through their allotted task of milking their reindeer, or making cheese, they resign themselves to indolent tranquillity, not knowing what to do next. In winter their food is cheese, taken once or twice a day, but in the evening they eat meat. A single reindeer supplies four persons with food for a week.
Carl Linnaeus, Lachesis lapponica, or, A tour in Lapland, Vol II., pg. 26-27 (1811, written in 1732)
Importance of Plants
They have no vegetable food brought to their tables.
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Transition to Industrialized Food Products
KOLA SÁMI – REINDEER KHOLODETS by Alexander Krasavin, Olga Fefelova & Andrei Dubovtsev
Compared to the cuisines of other peoples of the circumpolar North, Kola Sámi were subject to intense modifications due to the influences of long-lasting cultural and economic contacts with surrounding peoples – Russians, Norwegians, Finns, Komi and others. Kola Sámi have purchased and traded with Russians for rye flour for well over a century usually baking lenten rye flatbreads with it. In the 1920s Kola Sámi began eating vegetables, especially potatoes and onions. Until recently Sámi did not pick mushrooms, which are very abundant in Lapland. Nevertheless, berries – crowberry, cowberry, bilberry and cloudberry – are picked with enthusiasm and eaten dried or soaked, and also used as seasoning (in soup and other dishes).
Mar 25, 1873
Diabetes Mellitus and its dietetic treatment
A group of Cantani's patients (14-20) show that Type 2 Diabetes was effectively represented in the entire population, from young adults to the elderly but required them to eat high starch diets with little to no meat in order to be diagnosed. Anyone who did the rigorous all meat diet would improve in health, even people who never ate meat in the past!
OBSERVATION XIV. - Mr. Rodolfo S., priest of Palma, aged 60, lived only on flour and fruit. In December 1870 he experienced the first symptoms of diabetes, thirst, polyuria, and progressive weight loss; he was very tired of the insomnia. The urine, examined on February 7, 1871, contained 38 gr. of sugar per liter: the patient began my cure on February 8, and already, on the 18th, the urine re-examined was free of sugar; on March 8, the patient began to eat nuts, almonds, limes: the urine remained normal; likewise on August 11, after the patient had returned to the moderate use of bread. He continued to do very well in September 1874. I learned about it from Doctor Carbone de Vico di Palma.
OBSERVATION XV. Doctor Francesco B., from Frascineto in Calabria, doctor in Castrovillari, 39 years old, ate mainly mealy; he had survived two attacks of cholera, in 1867, and experienced great sorrows: recognized diabetic six months ago, after an analysis of the urine, to which he decided, because he suffered from thirst, hunger, polyuria, impotence and extraordinary weakness. He came to see me on November 5, 1871; his urine, examined by Professor Primavera, weighed 1029 and contained 80 gr. of sugar per liter: subject to my treatment, absolute meat diet and lactic acid, after eight days the glycosuria had disappeared. He left Naples a few months later: there was still no sugar, although he had resumed the use of eggs, green vegetables, fruit and a little flour. He wrote to me on March 5, 1873: he assures me that he is doing perfectly, “although he eats everything."
OBSERVATION XVI. - Mr. Raffaele C., wigmaker, 26 years old, from Naples. Suffering for two months from great thirst, hunger, polyuria, impotence, weakness and general wasting, with no other appreciable cause than his almost exclusively floury diet, was treated in Paris with sweet and sour drinks which improved gastric catarrh, but the other symptoms worsened. - When I saw him, on November 15, 1871, he had a polyuria of 5 liters per day, the urine had the specific weight of 1043, and contained, according to the analysis of Professor Primavera, 90 grams. of sugar per liter, which made about 450 gr. of sugar lost in twenty hours: he weighed 49kil, 3.
Submitted to the cure on November 16, his urine was examined on November 23: they were deprived of sugar; all symptoms of diabetes were gone; the patient's weight reached 50 kilograms. From that day on, the improvement continued gradually;
on January 20, 1872, the patient weighed 52,511.7,
on January 26 53kil, 1,
on February 4, 54ki1,8,
on March 8, 56kil, 3,
on March 27, 56k1, 6,
on April 8, 57k1, 1,
on April 27 57kil, 7,
April 30 58 kilog.,
May 24 59 kilog.
He had therefore gained, in six months, 10 kilograms. Today he is doing very well, eats everything and is always fat: seen again by me in the spring of 1874, he appears in an extremely flourishing aspect: he had been happily married for several months. Even today (September 1874), he is doing perfectly well.
OBSERVATION XVII. - MNN, from Malta, aged 40. This gentleman, whom I saw for the first time in consultation with Dr Jos. B. Sammut, was inclined by temperament to polysarcy; all his life he had abused flour and bonbons, never eating meat. Diabetic for six months, he had already followed my treatment in Malta. He nevertheless came to Naples, with 30 gr. of sugar per liter, with three liters of urine per day, so 90 gr. of sugar within twenty-four hours. Subject to all the rigor of our treatment, their quantity was 1750 с. C., and the sugar had completely disappeared. Thus re-established, he made a journey throughout Europe, consulting all the doctors of some renown, and again made a cure in the waters of Carlsbad and those of Vichy. He sent me from Carlsbad an analysis of his urine and a few lines from Dr. Seegen, from which it appears that the sugar had not reappeared although he had extended his diet: I saw him again in December, fully recovered. He wrote to me again on March 25, 1873 that he was doing completely well. On March 10, 1874, he wrote to me again to tell me that his strength and nutrition were fine. well, but after some overeating, small amounts of sugar reappeared and persisted in the urine, although he would have resumed a diet consisting of meat, green vegetables and gluten bread; he was asking me for advice on this. I told him to resume the cure in all its rigor, for a fairly long time (at least three months), and above all to give up gluten bread, which always contains too much starch for a diabetic; however, the patient has so far not wanted to give it up.
OBSERVATION XVIII. - Miss Rosina G., from Piedimonte d'Alife, 20 years old, daughter of a phthisic mother: one of her sisters became diabetic before her. She ate almost exclusively starches and sweets. For three years she has suffered from polyuria, hunger, thirst and severe weight loss: for two years she has been recognized as diabetic, thanks to an analysis made by Professor Primavera in 1868; she was subjected to various cures, in particular that of the waters of Casamicciola d'Ischia: all this was of no use. In the spring of 1870, she received the care of Doctors Caso and Paterno who ordered my treatment; she quickly gained in well-being and nutrition; in a fortnight her urine became free of sugar, and although shortly after she was returned to the mixed diet, to the use of bread and fruit, her urine remained free of sugar: I myself have seen the patient in September, in a good state of nutrition, with normal urine, specific weight of 1019, deprived of sugar. Seeing that she was very eager to eat starchy and sweet foods, I allowed her to do so, while warmly recommending never to abuse, as she did in the past, flour and sweets, surrender a second time. It is interesting to note in this case that, before the disappearance of sugar from the urine, the latter contained a very large quantity of crystals of oxalate of lime, which suggested to me the idea that oxalic acid , in certain cases, could, so to speak, substitute for sugar, in the sense that, the combustion of the hydrocarbons being improved in the organism, these begin to burn, but cannot arrive at a perfect oxidation and decomposition into water and carbonic acid, and thus transform into oxalic acid by incomplete combustion. In diabetes, the combustion of sugar is absolutely lacking, it remains in the state of sugar: the conditions of the organism improving, combustion would manage to produce oxalic acid, before get to be complete. Note that the fact of the appearance of a considerable quantity of oxalate of lime, in the urine, after the disappearance of the sugar, was later verified by me several times, and several other times by Professor Primavera. This young girl is doing well so far: on April 18, 1873, I received a letter from her brother, M. Alfonso G., who recommended me another patient of his acquaintance, adding that her sister was in perfect health. well: I saw her again in August 1873, and lately, in September 1874, I learned from her brother that she is in flourishing health.
OBSERVATION XIX. - The priest C., from Caserta, 38 years old, eating mainly starches, diabetic for 4 years, with 100 gr. of sugar per liter, after having consulted various primary doctors of Naples, and being subjected to various cures by arsenic, strychnine, cod-liver oil, iron, hydrotherapy, etc., was put, in January 1871, the exclusive meat diet, thanks to which the sugar disappeared completely after a rigorous treatment of 40 days. I saw the patient again on September 28, 1871 for a chronic catarrh of the stomach, although he was well fed with normal urine, one to one and a half liters a day, without a trace of sugar, although for a long time. he would have returned to mixed food. I had further direct information on this patient on May 30, 1873, and I knew that he was doing completely well; still today he enjoys perfect health, as I learned in June 1874 from one of his friends, officer in the army.
OBSERVATION XX.-M. Michele L., from Acireale, has always abused extraordinarily fruits and sweets: it was subjected by Doctor Vigo, of Acireale, to my curative method, and cured perfectly. In August 1872, he himself came to Naples, and wanted to see me to make sure that his health had returned: he brought me the analysis of his urine, made on August 22 by Professor Primavera, which testified the complete absence of sugar. A letter from Doctor Vigo, dated June 4, 1873, once again assures me of the perfect health of this patient.
Jan 1, 1941
Cancer becomes more common among Labrador Eskimos who ate the same Europeanized diets.
“In 1941 another Eskimo, Amos Martin, dled of cancel of the throat. Other cases between 1943 and 1945 in Nain were Boaz Obed, cancer of the stomach, and his wife Rosina, cancer of the womb. Then came Judith White, cancer of the breast (here was successful amputation). Then came two half-breed brothers, John and Amos Voisey, both of whom died of cancer of the throat and mouth. This was followed by John Samiat, Eskimo, cancer of the throat; then Karoline Kojak in 1955, cancer of the womb and breast. All these cases, with the exception of Nochasak, were at Nain and there were undoubtedly cases on other stations; all died with the exception of Mrs. Kojak who returned from hospital last summer and is still living.”
This paragraph was read in manuscript by Dr. Philip R. White, specialist in vegetable cancers but a general student of malignancy problems. He suggests that the paired junctions are remarkable and should not pass without remark — two men who die of stomach cancer whose respective wives die of womb cancer; and both of a pair of brothers who died of throat cancer. Numerous commentary possibilities rise to mind. However, with the foregoing analysis of the views expressed by northern medical missionaries in mind, it is fairly obvious what their suggestions would be. Believing that cancer is environmental in causation and chiefly nutritional, they would point out that husband and wife almost necessarily live in the same houses and eat the same foods prepared the same way. Like similarity would hold for brothers. So, why should not a nutritional disease be likely to strike these paired individuals within a few years of each other?