Category: Netherlands

ABOUT FOOD AND CULTURE OF THE NETHERLANDS

For many people, “Dutch” is synonymous with a number of stereotypes: the clopping of wooden shoes, children skating to school in the winter, and a lone boy somewhere with his finger in a dyke. Some think of the Dutch as staid and stolid, settled placidly into a life of agriculture with days in the fields and evenings with the goude frouw knitting and the burgher puffing contentedly on his pipe.

In fact, wooden shoes are worn only in the muddy countryside; the Netherlands’ year-round climate is so damp and misty that there are few days when ice actually forms on the canals; and in place of a little boy with a very sore finger, Dutch engineers have established a network of well-engineered dykes, dams, pumps, and sluices that not only keep back the North Sea, but are also draining and reclaiming the 25 percent of the Netherlands that is actually below sea level.

The 400th anniversary of the planting of the first tulip bulbs in the Netherlands was celebrated in 1994. One of the most awaited spring displays of glorious color, tulips excite delighted thanks to the Dutch. What many do not know, however, is that in many periods of hunger in Dutch history – as recent as the Second World War – tulip bulbs were ingeniously made into breads, stews, and soups.

Even the briefest glimpse into history reveals the Netherlands (“Holland” is the unofficial but popular name) as an important seafaring nation which once had global possessions: from the Arctic Ocean to Asia, Africa, Latin America, and even Staten Island in the United States. The Dutch East India Company is credited with introducing, in 1625, the Holland-Friesian breed of cattle to America, and in the 1800s it was Amsterdam bankers who were the first to invest in railroad building in Canada. It was the outspoken Dutch in the 1500s who fought the evils of the Inquisition and who to this day offer their land as a haven to religious and political refugees. Daring explorers, shrewd businessmen, and independent thinkers, the Dutch have also made great contributions to world art and literature.

Perhaps the image of the contented Dutch persists over the reality because so many Dutch contributions to our daily lives relate to the home. It was the early Dutch pioneers in New Amsterdam on Manhattan Island who introduced flower gardens with imported bulbs from Holland, built their homes over food storage cellars, and even served pancakes, waffles, and cookies to neighbors who had never sampled such delights.

Even the ubiquitous mound of coleslaw on restaurant plates is of Dutch origin. Credited with introducing strip farming in southern Alberta, developing western irrigation districts, and starting market gardening in the Holland Marsh area of York County in Ontario, the sturdy Dutch emigrating to the New World from the most densely populated area of Europe found vast areas of good land awaiting their industrious ingenuity.

Because of the imports of the Dutch East India Company, the Dutch were among the first Europeans to make tea drinking a daily ritual. In fact, the Dutch are credited with initiating the 4:00 p.m. tea break, the rules of steeping for five minutes, and even the serving of tea from a tea cozy protected pot.

There are many who would argue that the most important Dutch contribution is the beloved tradition of Santa Claus. Although the Dutch Sinterklaas is the antithesis of the western world’s commercially exploited Santa, he arrives annually in the Netherlands on December 6.  Sinterklaas is a Dutch tradition specifically for the enjoyment of all children regardless of religion.

Dutch family life is of prime importance, and closeness of friends and relatives is retained with much visiting. In the Netherlands this poses no problem since more than 15.5 million people live in no more than 16,000 square miles. In Canada and the United States the Dutch maintain this visiting, regard-less of the distance one has to travel. The sports-loving, health-conscious Dutch are also famous for their appetites. Though many are overweight, they still claim “Western Europe’s longest life expectancy and one of the lowest death rates in the world.” Perhaps then, the image of the goude frouw knitting and the burgher puffing on his pipe is more a symbol of inner peace and strength that contributes to Dutch health and longevity.

FOODS OF THE NETHERLANDS

DAIRY PRODUCTS

Milk and buttermilk as beverages are consumed more by children than adults, although a substantial amount of milk is used in tea and coffee. The cheeses of the Netherlands are famous, such as Edam, Gouda, and the spiced Leiden, all named for the towns where they are produced. The Dutch traditionally prepare few dishes with cheese (although cheese dishes seem increasingly popular), nor is cheese used as a dessert. They enjoy their mild nutty cheeses thinly sliced and served with bread either for breakfast or as a snack with Genever gin.

FRUITS AND VEGETABLES

Frozen and canned vegetables are readily available, but fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables are preferred. Potatoes are used in an infinite variety of ways: boiled, mashed, pureed, fried, as a souffle, pudding, baked or sautéed. Vincent Van Gogh’s famous painting, The Potato Eaters, is still representative of some rural areas in the Netherlands where the evening meal may consist of a huge bowl of potatoes centered on the table, each person spearing his or her own and dipping it into gravy or bacon fat before eating. White asparagus, red and green cabbages, cauliflower, Belgian endive, brussels sprouts, leeks, onions, kale, and car-rots are favorites.

Apples are the most popular fruit. Other fruits are expensive and therefore used sparingly. Dried fruits often accompany cooked meat dishes.

MEATS AND ALTERNATES

Beef and pork are preferred and, frequently, offal and variety meats are imaginatively used for economy and flavor. All types of cured, smoked, and pickled meats and sausages are also enjoyed for flavor and economy. Fowl and hare are used only occasionally.

The favorite fish is herring, in many forms. Green or spring herring is lightly smoked and brined and called Hollandse nieuwe. These are usually purchased from street vendors, sprinkled with raw sliced onions, and eaten as a snack. Cod, haddock, plaice (flounder), and snoek (pike) have a place in the Dutch diet, too, as well as shrimp and eel. It is a New Year’s custom to down as many oysters as possible. The Dutch generally prefer their meats well cooked, but enjoy their fish about raw.

Legumes are sometimes incorporated into sever-al vegetables that are cooked, mashed, and served with butter or gravy. More common is the use of dried peas in the soup called erwtensoep. Nuts are only seen in bakery and then almonds are prevalent.

BREADS AND GRAINS

A great variety of breads made from wheat and rye flours are served at every meal and customarily eaten in quantity. Hot cooked cereals or cold prepared cereals are not used. The exception is pap, a hot cereal of oatmeal and milk, but more usually prepared from stale bread with hot milk poured over and served to children for breakfast.

FATS

Unsalted butter is the preferred fat. All the well cooked meat and vegetable dishes are always serve, together with gravies or sauces, drippings or butte “Dry” meats or vegetables are not served.

SWEETS AND SNACKS

Chocolate, cocoa, and candies are considered special treats. A great variety of baked goods, especially cookies and unfilled, un-iced cakes are eaten wit tea or coffee as between-meal breaks. Red currant jellies and jams are used on bread or as dessert sauce: Snacks are often hearty meat sandwiches or fish specialties such as smoked kippers, sardines, and man varieties of herring.

SEASONINGS

Daily Dutch home cooking is well cooked but never highly seasoned. Onions, salt, and pepper with the added flavor from butter or drippings provide zest to soups, meats, and vegetables. Some fresh herbs at used when available. Ginger and cinnamon are use in baked goods with honey and molasses often providing sweetness as well as distinct taste and texture in honey cakes and honey and gingerbread cookie:

BEVERAGES

Milk is the children’s beverage while adults prefer tea or coffee taken with milk and sugar. Afternoon often find women enjoying tea and cookies while men drink a few beers. The traditional dinner aperitif is Genever gin, sometimes called Borrel by the Dutch. The rest of the meal will be served with watt or mineral water and, on special occasions, wine.

THE NETHERLANDS DOMESTIC LIFE AND SPECIAL OCCASIONS

The spotless Dutch kitchen, boasting shiny rows of plates in the cupboards and a collection of spoons hung in a spoon rack, which was always so much a part of pioneer Dutch kitchens, is often still found today. Many Dutch have a fondness for delftware — earthenware dishes glazed in white and blue — as well as for copper utensils and accessories. North American home-styles are very much a part of Dutch life too, but the tradition of gathering around the kitchen table for good food and talk persists.

A part of the Dutch home that is shown with pride is the food cellar. Rows of home-canned fruits, vegetables, pickles, pickled meats, headcheeses, and bins of root vegetables are very much a part of home-making skills. Modem homes make full use of freezers and refrigerators, but the traditional pride in home preserving remains.

SPECIAL OCCASIONS

More than two-thirds of the Dutch population belong to Protestant sects and the majority of these are members of the Dutch Reformed Church. Of the remainder, some 27 percent are Roman Catholics and about 5 percent are Jews.

Easter is celebrated with daffodils and tulips, honingkoek (honeycake) and krentenbollen (currant buns), while Christmas is quietly celebrated by going to church with family. New Year’s Eve calls for happy family parties with appel beignets (fried apple fritters), oliebollen (deep-fried yeast doughnuts), and appelbollen (apples baked in puff pastry).

The happiest and most important celebration of the year is, surprisingly, neither religious nor patriotic, and is celebrated by everyone regardless of age or religion. This is the delightful festival of St. Nicholas, “a fixture of Dutch culture since the Middle Ages,” and the patron saint of Amsterdam. Although no one seems to know why, as early as mid-November, Sinterklaas, dressed in bishop’s robes and a long beard, arrives by boat from Spain, accompanied by his black helper Swarte Piet (Black Pete) and his white horse. Together they make the rounds of towns and villages, providing toys for good children and reprimands for naughty ones.

For many children, Sinterklaas, with his book of records about children, is scary. Yet, hopeful that they will receive toys, children eagerly prepare for the arrival of Sinterklaas and Swarte Piet by placing one of their shoes, filled with hay, carrots, or cookies for the horse, in front of the fireplace. For them, Sinterklaas and Piet may arrive by horse, barge, car, or even a bicycle. However, adults enjoy the festival with gifts accompanied by rhyming verses, treasure hunts, and practical jokes. Traditionally, a large solid chocolate letter (boterleiter) for each person’s name marks their place at the festive table. Also enjoyed are marzipan and fondant candies, and other special cookies, rich with honey and fragrant with nuts and spices, are called speculaas and taai-taai.

Recently in the Netherlands, the rotund jolly Santa Claus, together with North American holiday jingles, have been encroaching on the Sinterklaas tradition. For those Dutch who retain Christmas as a calmly beautiful religious festival, such commercialization is profanity.

MEALS AND CUSTOMS

The average day in the Netherlands begins with an ample breakfast of many breads, unsalted butter and jams, sliced cheeses, and occasionally a fried or boiled egg. Young children often eat a breakfast cereal called pap. Adults drink tea with milk and sugar, while the youngsters have milk or buttermilk.

Lunch, called koffietafel, is principally a cold meal consisting of breads, cheeses plus sliced meats and sausages, and the addition of one small hot dish (a baked casserole, soufflé, or omelet), perhaps a dessert of fruit or rice, or farina pudding. One thing is certain: lunch will be concluded with “endless cups of coffee taken with milk and sugar. Note that both breakfast and lunch are “sandwich meals” and these are accompanied by either tea or coffee.

Six o’clock in the evening is time for a quick aperitif of Dutch Genever gin (strongly juniper-flavored preceding the usual dinner time of 6:30 p.m. The often damp and chilly weather makes hot soup  popular first course, followed by fish or meat plus gravy and one of the many hot potato or vegetable dishes. A simple dessert pudding or flensjes (small crepes) finish the meal. Accompanying dinner is water or mineral water and sometimes wine but never tea or coffee. Juices or soft drinks also have no place at the dinner table. Occasionally men have beer at dinner.

The legendary Dutch appetite could hardly be appeased with a mere three meals a day. So at about 10:30 a.m. everyone stops for coffee and hot milk served with koekjes (cookies). At 4:00 p.m. there is a universal break for tea and cookies. But in between, if even the suggestion of a hunger pang strikes, all is in readiness: pannekoekenhuisje (pancake houses) dish up huge pancakes a-shimmer with butter and preserves; broodjeswinkel (delicatessens) stand by to serve sandwiches, especially the famed uitsmijter, a Dutch “snack” of bread and butter topped with sliced meat, fried eggs, and pickles. Then there are always vendors with herring and eel snacks.

Dutch cooks seldom experiment: simple and hearty traditional dishes are well loved. The most popular dining-out meal is the rijstafel or Indonesian “rice table.” This is a traditional feast centering on mounded rice flanked by platters of shrimp or pork or beef ready to be accented with an array of hot, sweet, spicy, crunchy, or cool condiments. What a contrast to the daily Dutch fare!

Such exotic tastes were brought to the Netherlands by colonists living for a time in previously Dutch-owned Indonesia. Three hundred years of Dutch occupation was long enough to bring home some Oriental food tastes. Many quick-lunch counters also feature a few of these specialties. The fact that most western Dutch import shops feature a section of specialty foods for the rijstafel is proof that adventurous Dutch will occasionally attempt this cookery at home.

FOODS COMMONLY USED

The Dutch eat traditional hearty fare at home, but prefer international dishes when they dine out. Cheese is one of their most important dairy products and is usually eaten for breakfast. Fruits and vegetables are well cooked and enjoyed in season, although preserves are also popular. Potatoes prepared in endless variations and breads of every type stand apart as the most important staples. Meats are used more sparingly and pork and beef are favorites. Of fish, herring is used most widely and in many ways. Seasonings are limited because the Dutch prefer the natural tastes of fresh ingredients. Tea, coffee, beer, and gin are the usual adult drinks, while children enjoy milk. It is customary that all cooked foods are well cooked.

GLOSSARY OF FOOD AND FOOD TERMS

Amandelspijs: Christmas almond cake.

Appel Beignets: deep-fried apple fritters served with a sugar dusting. A New Year’s Eve treat.

Appelbollen: apples baked in a puff pastry. A New Year’s Eve treat.

Balletjes: small meatballs often used as soup garnish.

Bitterballen: small coated deep-fried meatballs used as appetizers.

Borstplaat: brightly colored flavored fondant candy a specialty for St. Nicholas’ Eve, December 5.

Boterkoek: rich shortcake enjoyed with “elevenses,” the mid-morning coffee break.

Jachtschotel: casserole made with layered cold (cooked) sliced meats and onions, apples, and potatoes, all baked slowly.

Kandeel: hot spiced wine thickened with egg yolks and traditionally offered to visitors after a baby’s birth. Served in small cups and poured from a jug. Gender-appropriate decorations of pink or blue ribbons are tied to the cinnamon-stick stirrers.

Kool Sla: coleslaw. Literally, a cabbage salad dressed with vinegar.

Krentenbollen: shiny currant buns served with but-ter for Easter breakfast.

Oliebollen: traditional New Years Eve treat of deep-fried yeast doughnuts sprinkled with sugar.

Olykoeks: “oilcakes.” Yeast dough with raisins, lemon, and chopped apple shaped in rounds and deep-fried then rolled in sugar.

Ontbijtkoek: a moist lightly spiced cake often buttered and eaten on a slice of bread for breakfast.

Paling Soep: an eel soup popularly eaten with other fish and seafood dishes during meatless Lent.

Pap: children’s hot breakfast cereal, which may be oatmeal but more usually is stale bread with hot milk poured over and flavored with cinnamon and brown sugar.

Pepernoten: spicy round crisp cookies eaten on St. Nicholas’ Eve, December 5.

Puffertjes: puffards. Cookies baked in a “puffet pan” and eaten hot with cinnamon sugar.

Rijsttafel: the Dutch name given to the Netherlands version of an Indonesian feast, where a huge mound of rice flanked by many dishes combining meats, fish, and seafood with lightly cooked (stir-fried) fruits and vegetables are served, accompanied with deep-fried shrimp wafers and a selection of condiments from sweet, crisp, cool, to spicy hot. This special dinner is usually eaten in restaurants, though it may be occasionally attempted at home. Some of the dishes may include the following:

• Bahmi: Chinese noodles mixed with finely cut vegetables sauteed with meat or seafood and seasoned with the slightly sweet Indonesian soy sauce.
• Gado-Gado: mixed sauteed vegetables with peanut sauce
• Ketimoer: a spicy cucumber relish.
• Kroepoek: the small dried shrimp and tapioca flour wafers that billow out to fluffy crispness when deep-fried. Served as a bread accompanying the meal.
• Loempiahs: similar to egg rolls or spring rolls.
• Nasi: rice.
• Nasi Goreng: fried rice.
• Sambal: spiced combinations of crushed hot peppers made into very thick sauces. These are always added by the diner, not the cook.
• Sateh or Sate: tiny cubes of meat, usually beef, threaded on thin, small wooden skewers and broiled.
• Tauge: bean sprouts.

Rookworst: smoked spicy sausage eaten only after slow cooking, usually accompanies thick mashed vegetables.

Rolliches: lean beef and fat strips well seasoned and wrapped in tripe then boiled and pressed together with some of the broth into a loaf, chilled then sliced.

Speculaas: one of the many spiced cookies eaten on St. Nicholas’ Eve, December 5.

Spekkie Sla: favored dish made of a cooked mashed mixture of potatoes and chopped endive, served in a soup plate with bacon drippings, vinegar, and freshly ground pepper.

Stamppot Witte Kool: white cabbage and potatoes cooked and mashed together and served with butter. A typical winter dish.

Taai-Taal: soft and chewy gingerbread cookies made in shapes of men and women, served at the place setting of each guest for St. Nicholas’ Eve, December 5.

Uitsmijter: famed Dutch “snack” made of buttered bread topped with cold sliced meat and fried eggs, and garnished with pickles.