The liquor table is a Porvoo tradition – Samuel assembled his own

The liquor table has, among other things Jussi Eskola

A bourgeois family from Porvoo once had a liquor table. When the guests came by sleigh in the winter, the frost might have chilled the travelers. The warming liquor table was appreciated.

When Porvoo set up a second home in a log house at the beginning of the 20th century Samuel Sorainen read about the history of wine tables in a local newspaper from Uusimaa, he decided to respect the traditions.

– Since the builder and first owner of Petsved was an educated man and worked as a teacher, the liquor table could very well have been here as well, says Samuel.

According to the Porvoo museum, there should be flavored wines and liqueurs at the liquor table. Sorai has a few Helsinki wines, Lingoncello made from domestic lingonberries and liqueur made from their own cherries.

Island bread, jams, fruit, venison salami and cheeses are offered with the liquor table’s food. In honor of Christmas, they are – of course – arranged in the shape of a Christmas tree.

Liquor table snacks

domestic cheeses

island bread

deer patty

deer salami

pumpkin marmalade

cherry jam

tomato jam

Pumpkin marmalade

1 kg of pumpkin malt

1 tablespoon fresh ginger

3 oranges

1 lemon

650 g marmalade sugar

1. Peel the pumpkin and boil the malt in a little water until it is fully cooked. Drain off excess liquids and puree into a smooth, runny puree.

2. Wash the oranges and lemon well and grate the peel. Peel and chop the fruit. Put the pumpkin puree, fruit blocks, grated citrus peel and grated ginger in a pot and cook for about 15 minutes. Purée with a hand blender until smooth and, if you wish, pass through a strainer so that the end result is silky.

3. Add marmalade sugar and cook for about ten minutes. Let cool for a while and spoon into hot, sterilized glass jars. Close the lids well. Successfully sealed marmalade can be kept cool for up to a year.