Finns seem to love their sausages! There are sooo many at the grocery store and it’s difficult to know exactly what is what (especially bc sometimes the packages don’t show anything).

My question specifically is about the kinds of sausages that are one thick cylinder shape — I recently bought one HK brand called “BALKAN”… I googled Balkan sausage and thought it looked delicious. But when I opened it? It was more like a “hot dog” type of taste and consistency…. Still delicious, but different from what I expected and from google…

I am looking for a kind of sausage similar to what’s in the US that is like ground meat basically, that you could shape into little sausages or even into a circular patty shape (like on a breakfast sandwich in the US). Can anyone explain to me is this exists here, and names/brand to buy???!

by babydino_11

5 comments

  1. I’m not familiar with the ground meat sausage you described. Could you give some common name or brands for that so we could see what they are made of and if there’s something similar available in Finland.

  2. Would help a lot if you told us what it’s called in the US…

  3. I think the type of sausage you are looking for is called “raakamakkara” here, so it’s raw, seasoned ground meat.

    You can find them packaged and shaped like sausages. The important part is to look at the word “raaka” which means raw.

    For example [this](https://www.hk.fi/globalassets/emmi/hkscan-finland/tuotekuvat/tuoteryhmat/makkarat-nakit-pekonit-suikaleet-kuutiot-muut/grillimakkarat/5566-hk-maakarit-raakamakkara-livornon-luigi-280-g.jpg?preset=HK.5col.Auto.Scale) or [this](https://www2.atria.fi/contentassets/44a535cfdf1a40ccbd0105290a402014/7775.jpg?w=555&h=555).

  4. Most of the Finnish supermarket sausages are precooked and ready to eat, like hot dogs (and a bunch of other sausage styles). Raakamakkara is the term for uncooked sausages, and you’ll find a few types in most super markets, I don’t know the history but it’s not that popular here.

  5. Maby you are looking for some kind of nakki or grillimakkara?
    Fyi if package says “raakamakkara” it is raw and should be cooked before eating.

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