Any nation's basic diet is defined by its geographical location. The wealth of Latvia has always been unevenly dispersed over its four regions. The table of a Zemgale nobleman differed from that of a Kurzeme fisherman or a Latgale peasant. According to principles of ethics expounded in Latvia's oral traditions everywhere food was served by a white (i.e., virtuous) hostess on a clean table with a generous hand. The male head of the household cut the first slice of bread; members of the household bowed their heads out of respect for the leader; in quiet voices they thanked God and the giver. Bread was the fruit of work, which is holy in Latvian culture.

Slaughtering of the cattle was adjusted with the seasons, which caused very interesting traditions to emerge. For the various holidays the food was very interesting.

Most typical food specialities

Infrequently a dessert called iejavputra is prepared from the yeast water. It is brought to a boil together with sliced dried apples. Rye or unrefined wheat flour is added to make porridge, which is sweetened with honey. Yeast can also be beaten into froth and served cool with milk.

Sweet-sour rye bread (saldskabmaize) is baked from finely ground rye flour.

Sklandu rausi is a type of bun that is traditionally baked in Kurzeme, Latvia's western-most region. It is made of rye flour with carrots and potatoes, apple and cottage cheese pies. The name is derived from a word meaning "fence". The buns are formed with a "fence" – a border which prevents the filling from running off and gives the bun a pretty appearance. The fence is made by lifting up the dough on the sides and twisting it into "sausages", "herring-bones" or "ropes".

The Zemigalians and the Kursi make karasas from wheat flour, but in Vidzeme placeni (flat cakes) are made from barley meal.

The women of Vidzeme make sutnes – a steamed mixture of grains. This dish is served with fresh or curdled milk.

Beans and peas also a main staple of the Latvian diet. These are served in all seasons. In summer, broad beans are boiled with their pods and served with buttermilk or curdled milk. Peas are eaten during winter and always on the eve of the winter solstice (or Christmas Eve): boiled peas with a small amount of lard are heated in the oven. Pea balls (zirnu pikas) are made from boiled, mashed peas. At Christmas time you may also be served a smoked pig's half head or only its snout with peas, beans, blood sausage and other types of sausages.

The tables in Zemgale and Kurzeme are unimaginable without the traditional skabputra (sour porridge), a drink made from barley groats beaten together with milk.

A refreshing drink called maizes kvass is made from bread crusts.

Birch juice, either fresh or fermented, has always been a natural and healthy drink for Latvians in early spring and in the heat of the summer. This "elixir of life" is poured into a wooden barrel and sprinkled with grains of barley. The seeds sprout, creating a green cover, but the juice ferments with a special taste. Brown, fermented birch juice is a result of adding roasted rye bread crusts. Taste additives: black currant branches and peppermint. Nowadays birch juices are prepared with lemon and orange rind, raisins, cinnamon, etc. A skilled maker may even offer you birch champagne.

Beer, whether dark or light, bitter or sweet (medalus), is an integral part of the Latvian summer solstice. On the so-called "Eve of Grasses" (23^rd of June) you will be met by a hostess carrying cheese rounds and piragi (buns filled with smoked bacon), but the male head of the household carries about a pitcher of frothy home-made beer, serving it to his guests. The scent of summer fields, grass, and flowers overwhelms the senses. The Janu siers (Solstice cheese, Janu cheese) is prepared in every household. The cheese varies in its consistency from soft to hard, with caraway seeds or without them. Lean cheese is smeared with butter.

The Latvian table will always surprise you. In the spring, especially in late April, you can prepare zidenis – a porridge made from pearl barley boiled together with a pig's ear or tail, which symbolises long ears of grain and therefore should be eaten by the sower.

At Easter coloured eggs are placed on the table. The eggs are usually a luscious brown, which is achieved by boiling them in onion skins. A fern-green colour comes from the leaves of the birch branches, which are used year-round to massage the pirts (steam-house) – goers. Frequently, eggs are wrapped in yarn, leaves, blades of grass, dried heather, lingonberry leaves or grains, which leave lovely designs on the egg's brown hue. Eggs are also coloured with dried blueberries.

During the winters in the olden days the Latvian homestead had very little milk to spare, but in the spring, when the cows calved, milk once again occupied a prominent position in the Latvian diet. In Vidzeme, farm cheese is served as a spread embellished with poppy butter. Boiled or baked potatoes are eaten with bacon and farm cheese fried with onions. Flat cakes are baked from rough wheat, buckwheat, barley meal or even bean flour.

Poppy butter is made from dried, crushed or ground poppy seeds. The seeds are crushed or milled until they turn into a greasy, black mass. Staks or stenkis is a poppy mass diluted with milk or water. It is used as an additive to various foods: pea porridge, pea balls, as a frosting for flat cakes and bread.

Kiselis (a dessert which is usually made from fruit, berries, also from flour and milk, and may by thickened with starch) is boiled from oats. If kiselis is served hot, then it is topped with cubed, fried, smoked or salted bacon fritters. When the gruel cools, it becomes the thick oat kiselis. As a dessert it can be eaten together with honey and is served along with a cup o refreshing milk.

Nettle, sorrel, goose-foot (bot.) and horse-tail (bot.) soups are made in the spring. They are prepared with smoked pork, or boiled in water with barley meal, groats or pressed oats. Boiled eggs and sour cream are added to the soup.

When the warm days commence, biguzis is made. Ripe rye bread is cut into small pieces or crumbled, then spring water is poured over the mass and sweetened with honey. Pressed cranberries, raspberries or red currants may be added during season. This food was called many names: nabaga cirtiens (the pauper's stroke), nabagelis (pauper), or cuncu-runcu (which cannot be translated). Biguzis is set on a shelf for several hours in order for it to acquire its desired taste. Sometimes warm, sweetened linden, camomile, peppermint or caraway tea is poured over the bread.

When Jani (the summer solstice) has passed, the summer turns toward its sister-autumn. Latvia's marshes and forests still offer a wealth berries, nuts and mushrooms.

© The Latvian Institute, 1999

This fact sheet can be freely printed from homepage of the Latvian Institute, distributed and cited, on condition that the Latvian Institute is acknowledged as the source. The Latvian Institute is a non-profit organisation (a State Corporation with limited liability) established to promote knowledge about Latvia abroad. It produces publications, in several languages, on many aspects of Latvia.