{"id":150550,"date":"2025-08-27T09:35:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T06:35:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/?p=150550"},"modified":"2025-08-27T09:36:35","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T06:36:35","slug":"saslokk-taste-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/saslokk-taste-test\/","title":{"rendered":"\u0160a\u0161l\u00f5kk Taste Test"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The most popular Estonian barbecue dish is \u0161a\u0161l\u00f5kk<\/i>\u2014a word that contains two letters not even found in the English alphabet, or the Finnish. In Finnish for example, it\u2019s commonly called saslikki<\/i>, or a meat skewer<\/i> in English. It was introduced to Estonia from the Caucasus during Soviet times, mainly in the 1980s. Even today, Armenian cooks are considered masters of the craft.<\/p>\n

During the late Soviet years, when almost everything was in short supply, the most common marinade was made from an onion\u2013vinegar\u2013water base. The vinegar used in traditional recipes is 30% strong\u2014something to keep in mind when following Estonian recipes. Other common ingredients included garlic, sugar, bay leaves, and pepper. The most commonly used cut was, and still is, pork neck, or sea kaelakarbonaad<\/i> in Estonian\u2014so you know what to look for\u2014which results in a juicier grilled product compared to, say, loin or ham. In our test, the lean product from Rakvere received fewer points for this reason.<\/p>\n

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Meat pieces stay in place on a flat skewer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Classic \u0161a\u0161l\u00f5kk is a favourite across generations.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Grill skewers are usually over 50 cm long and flat, which keeps the meat from spinning while cooking. Onion rings from the marinade are often added to the skewer as well.<\/p>\n

For The Baltic Guide<\/i>\u2019s test, we selected all the traditional \u0161a\u0161l\u00f5kk<\/i> products sold at Tallinn\u2019s Prisma supermarket\u2014a total of seven varieties. Around fifty other pre-marinated meats were also available on the shelves, including turkey options.<\/p>\n

Eight testers participated, and the clear winner\u2014chosen almost unanimously\u2014was the \u201cSea \u0161a\u0161l\u00f5kk\u201d made by Armeenia Grill in the town of Keila. Tradition speaks volumes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  The most popular Estonian barbecue dish is \u0161a\u0161l\u00f5kk\u2014a word that contains two letters not even found in the English … Read more<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":149186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[17928,25011,25988,25990,25991],"class_list":["post-150550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-estonia","tag-estonian-cuisine","tag-grilling","tag-summer-food","tag-meat-skewer","tag-saslokk"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150550"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":150557,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150550\/revisions\/150557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/balticguide.ee\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}