SÄRÄ - delicious lamb dish cooked in a birch log in a wood-fired baking oven

Wood-fired oven is heated during 3 hours. Lamb, seasoned in salt brine for 3 days, goes into the hot oven for 4 hours. After 4 hours of cooking stewed meet is taken out from the oven, placed on peeled potatoes in a special trough made from birch log. And then this log stuffed with potatoes and meat is sent to the wood-fired oven again for 2-3 hours more. During this cooking time lamb is covered with a golden crust and becomes incredibly soft. Baked potato is soaked with meat juice, but keeps its shape. Birch log gives its flavor while cooking. It takes about 9 hours to prepare this dish!

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi and www.snob.ru

Having a holiday in Finland at lakeside cottage usually we know what to do. Sauna, fireplace, BBQ, boat, lake and fishing are nice activities on vacation. But sometimes during a vacation it comes a time when you want to experience something special and outside the cottage. We do not even suspect that next to us may be such unusual and bright places.

Today we will talk about one special restaurant Sarapirtti Kippurasarvi, which is located in a small Lemi village in Finland, only 25 km from Lappeenranta and 220 km from Helsinki. Restaurant address: Rantatie 1, 54710 Lemi

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi

It was not a fiction, what he have described at the beginning of this post, but it's a real process of cooking SÄRÄ, very tasty lamb dish. This is practically the only dish that is served in the Säräpirtti Kippurasarvi restaurant following a thousand-year old tradition. The owners of the restaurant managed to patent the recipe of this dish. Today this family restaurant in Lemi — the world only restaurant, where you can try Särä.

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi

The only garnish for oven-cooked lamb are potatoes. And the only seasoning is salt.

As a result of long and slow cooking meat becomes gentle and melting in the mouth. It takes at least 9 hours to prepare Särä. If you would like to enjoy Särä during the standard serving times, it is needed to reserve a table in advance. Table reservation is easy to make on restaurant's web-site: Reservation and opening hours.

There is one rule at this restaurant: “Eat all you can”
Owners are joking that the first 3 plates will help you to feel the taste of the dish, but with the fourth portion you will begin a real meal!

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi

Adults price: 32 €, children aged between 4 and 8: 12 €, children aged between 9 and 12: 16 €, children under 4: free.
Including Särä, home-made rieska bread and butter, puréed fruit soup, water and home-brewed beer.

People said that it is not possible to leave this restaurant hungry and then another few days you will remember this food adventure.

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi

If you would like to arrange a gala dinner at the cottage, it is possible to order Särä and take away/. In Säräpuoti Shop, you can buy and take home all delicacies that belong to a traditional Särä meal. It also make great gift ideas!

Photo: www.sarapirtti.fi

On the map below we marked Säräpirtti Kippurasarvi restaurant and few cottages for rent, which are located near the restaurant.