It is a pizzeria with a sign: No cheese. So the war goes on: the sausage on the stove, tradition or crime?

The defence: Finnish news once called sausage grilled on the stones the most common sauna food. In one Midsummer week, Finnish shops take in nineteen million sausages.

The prosecution: the heater maker says salt and moisture shorten the stove's life. An insurer says never directly on the stove. And in Berlin, Germans found it the strangest Finnish sauna habit of all.

The compromise: the sausage gets its own little stone house. In Finland, even the sausage has a sauna.

Tradition or crime?

Follow your heater's manual: some stoves forbid anything but water.

Sources: a Finnish housing company's sauna rules, item 6 ("Makkaran käristäminen kiukaalla on ehdottomasti kielletty"). Yle 2014 on the most common sauna food. Verkkouutiset 2021: 19 million sausages to Finnish shops in Midsummer week. Turva (May 2025) on never cooking sausage directly on the stove and using a heat-resistant container. Arto Harvia (Harvia), Kotona.com: salt and moisture shorten a stove's life. Yle 9 Feb 2024 on the "Die Sauna" show at Finland's embassy in Berlin.
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