Speķrauši

Speķraušiorspeķa pīrādziņi, sometimes also colloquially known simply aspīrāgiorpīrādziņi, areLatvianoblong orcrescent-shaped bakedbread rollsorpastriesfilled with finely chopped fattybaconcubes andonions. They range from five to thirteen centimetres (2.0 to 5.1 in) in length, depending on if they are intended as asnackor a more substantial meal. Smallerspeķraušiare often prized for their daintiness and are considered the work of a skilledcook.
As with many national dishes, Latvian families often have their own unique recipe for the dish, yet to be calledspeķraušiit has to maintain the crescent shape and the filling has to be bacon bits. Due to the amount of work involved to makethem, they're usually made only for special occasions and in very large numbers. Yet, one would be able to find them in most local bakeries and pastry shops.
Other common fillings include fatty bacon, fatback (speķis), mixtures of ground or finely chopped meats (ground beef, ham and chicken with or without bacon), fish,cabbage, pressedcottage cheese, stewedcabbageorsauerkraut.Bacon piescome in two main varieties: plain bread bacon pies andbrothor soup bacon pies (zupasorbuljona pīrāgi). Breadbacon piescome with a larger variety of fillings and are made using a yeast dough.Brothbacon piesare made from aflaky pastrybutter dough, often a sour cream dough, and are usually filled with boiled beef or sometimes cooked fish. These are intended to be eaten with a cup or bowl ofbroth.
The day before bakingbacon patties, the cook usually spends one or two hours preparing any meat and onion that will be used. Bacon and other fatty meats (such as bacon or back bacon) do not chop well in a food processor and tend to get caught on the blade, so the cook must hand chop these into tiny cubes, about 1.5 millimetres (about 1/16 inches). This is sometimes made easier by freezing the meat for a few minutes. Other less fatty meats (such as beef) tend to turn into a paste in the food processor, so if the meat is not already ground, the cook grinds it using a hand or electric grinder.
The day of baking, the cook makes the dough. This is a fairly standard white bread dough, with a varying amount of fat in it, depending on the particular family's recipe. Allowing the dough to proof and rise takes several hours, during which time the meat from the previous day is sauteed over a very low flame for a few minutes to ensure that the flavours in the filling meld a bit. When the dough has finished rising for bread bacon patties, or the dough has chilled for bullion bacon patties, the cook usually uses one of two methods to make the individualbacon patties:
Prepared pastries are put into rows on pans, left to rise slightly, brushed with egg and then baked for a few minutes.
Pīrāgiwere not a seasonal dish inLatviansociety, because most ingredients needed to make the different varieties were available from the pantry year round. Afterpotatoeshad filtered intoLatviansociety from theNew World, sometimespotatoeswere also used to replace flour in the dough, allowing the pastries to be baked even when flour was unavailable. This means thatpīrāgicould be baked at any time and are historically associated with Latvian celebrations year-round.
The two biggest historic Latvian celebrations are forsummer solsticeandwinter solstice:JāņiandZiemassvētki. One of the most popular and familiar LatvianZiemassvētkifolk songs mentionspīrāgi: