Dutch cuisine

Dutch cuisine comes from the cooking traditions of the Netherlands. The country's location near the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and the North Sea has shaped its food. This area is great for fishing, farming, and trade, which has influenced what people eat there.

Because of plenty of water and flat land, Dutch food includes many dairy products like butter and cheese. In the past, the Dutch were important in the spice trade, helped spread coffee around the world, and created a special way to make chocolate taste better.

Today, the Netherlands is known for producing a lot of food and is one of the biggest exporters in the world. Traditional Dutch dishes vary by region. In the northeast, people enjoy meats and heavy rye bread. In the west, fish and dairy products are popular. The south is famous for its stews and sweet pastries. Dutch breakfasts often include sweet toppings on bread, and the Dutch eat more liquorice than any other country in the world.

History

14th–16th centuries

Early cookbooks show that people in Europe ate similar foods, but what they used depended on what was nearby. In the Netherlands, with its green grasslands, milk and butter were common. Dutch butter and cheese became famous. Ordinary people ate simple foods like thick pea soup called snert, made with vegetables, meat, and fish, served with rye bread.

Beer was a common drink because water wasn’t safe to drink. In the 14th century, a new way to preserve herring fish was invented, which helped the Dutch fish farther out at sea and export more fish. Today, they still celebrate Flag Day each spring when fishermen catch the first herring of the year.

17th century

During the Dutch Golden Age, richer people could enjoy more lavish meals. The Dutch East India Company brought spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, and large amounts of sugar and coffee to Europe. Coffee houses became popular places for people to gather. Spices were once a sign of wealth, but as they became more common, even ordinary people could enjoy them. Cookbooks from this time show meals starting with salads and vegetables, followed by fish and meat dishes, and ending with cheeses and sweet pastries.

18th–21st centuries

In the early 1800s, poor families mainly ate bread and potatoes. They might also have pancakes, herring, fruit, and vegetables, but meat was rare. Their drinks were often weak coffee, tea, or beer. In the 20th century, schools began teaching girls how to cook simple, affordable meals, which made Dutch food more plain and uniform. Later, influenced by foods from other countries and the world becoming more connected, Dutch cuisine changed and became more varied. Today, many international foods are found in big cities, and there are many top-rated restaurants in the country.

Origins

Dutch agriculture includes greenhouse farming, tillage, fruit growing, animal husbandry, and fishing.

Greenhouses grow tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and sweet peppers. The Netherlands leads in high-tech greenhouse farming, with Wageningen University and Research playing a key role.

Tillage crops include potatoes, kale, beetroot, green beans, carrots, celeriac, onions, cabbages, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, endive, spinach, Belgian endive, asparagus, and lettuce. Efforts are also made to promote vegetables like common purslane, medlars, parsnips, and black salsify.

Fruits grown include apples, pears, cherries, berries, and plums.

The Dutch raise cattle for milk, butter, cheese, and meat, chickens for eggs and meat, pigs for meat and other products, and sheep for wool and meat. Goats are increasingly used for cheese production. Horse meat was traditionally common but is less popular today.

The fishing industry catches cod, herring, European plaice, sole, mackerel, eels, tuna, salmon, trout, oysters, mussels, shrimp, and sardines. The Dutch are famous for their smoked eel and soused herring, which is eaten raw.

Regional

Many food origins trace back to three main regional forms of Dutch cuisine. Some products from these regions are protected by EU law, such as jenever, Noord-Hollandse Gouda, and kanterkaas (cumin and clove cheese), boerenkaas (farmer's cheese) and Hollandse nieuwe (soused herring), and Edam Holland and Limburgse vlaai.

Western cuisine

Western Dutch cuisine is found in North Holland, South Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, and the Gelderlandic region of Betuwe. The flat grassland and freshwater sources make this area ideal for cattle, known for its dairy products. Access to the sea provided fish, spices, coffee, chocolate, and sugar from overseas colonies.

Zeeland and South Holland produce butter with more milkfat, leading to rich, buttery pastries. Cookies, often with butter and sugar, are common, like the stroopwafel and gevulde koek. Pastries tend to be doughy with sugar, like the oliebol and Zeeuwse bolus. Duivekater is a moist white bread from the Zaanstreek, eaten with butter.

Buttermilk (karnemelk) is used in this region's cuisine. Leyden cheese, spiced with cumin and made from skimmed milk, is also traditional.

This region has famous Dutch cheeses like Gouda and Edam, made from full-fat milk. Cheeses certified as "Gouda Holland" or "Edam Holland" must be produced in Holland using traditional methods with milk from Dutch cows and natural aging. Other cheeses from this area include Leerdammer, Beemster, and Rotterdamsche Oude.

Seafood like soused herring, mussels, eels, oysters, and shrimp is common. Kibbeling, small battered white fish chunks, is a popular snack.

Ossenworst (ox sausage) is a raw beef sausage with spices like pepper, cloves, mace, and nutmeg, originating from Amsterdam in the 17th century. Aged beef was used, smoked at a low temperature. Today, it is made with lean beef and often eaten with Amsterdamse uitjes (pickled onions). Pickling onions and augurk or zure bom (pickled cucumbers) is a tradition from Amsterdam's Jewish community. Soused herring is traditionally eaten in Amsterdam with pickled cucumber.

The region has the world's largest cocoa cluster, making the Netherlands a top chocolate exporter. The chocolate industry is here due to colonial history and innovations like Coenraad van Houten's process in 1828, which made solid chocolate. Van Houten produced chocolate in Amsterdam, Leiden, and Weesp, while Droste started in Haarlem. Chocomel, a chocolate-flavoured milk, originated in Zoetermeer. Zaandam is home to Verkade and Tony's Chocoloney, a fair trade chocolate brand. De Zaanstreek is known for mayonnaise and whole-grain mustards.

A kroket is often eaten with mustard. High-quality kalfsvleeskroketten were made by bakeries in big cities in the 20th century. FEBO, Van Dobben, Kwekkeboom, and Holtkamp started as pastry bakeries and are now known for quality kalfsvleeskroketten with veal ragout filling.

The traditional alcoholic beverages are beer (pale lager) and jenever, a high-proof juniper-flavoured spirit known as gin in England. Lucas Bols in Amsterdam and Nolet (Ketel One) in Schiedam are among the oldest distilleries. Delft is also known for its jenever. The Bols family started a distillery in Amsterdam in 1575, introducing flavours like Blue Curaçao and Pisang Ambon. The Nolet Distillery in Schiedam was founded in 1691 and has stayed in the Nolet family. Advocaat, a rich liqueur made from eggs, sugar, and brandy, is another local drink.

Northeastern cuisine

The provinces of Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe, Overijssel, and Gelderland north of the great rivers have northeastern Dutch cuisine, known for its meats. This area was less populated, with large-scale agriculture introduced in the 18th century, allowing for game and animal husbandry. Coastal regions of Friesland, Groningen, and parts of Overijssel include fish in traditional dishes.

The metworst is a dried sausage found throughout this region, with each town having its own variety. The most famous is Gelderse rookworst, a smoked sausage boiled in water, often eaten with stamppot like zuurkoolstamppot (mashed potatoes and sauerkraut). Kruudmoes, a traditional dish with buttermilk, pearl barley, bacon, and herbs, includes rookworst and is local to Gelderland and Overijssel. Balkenbrij is a traditional food from farms in the region, made of meat scraps, spices, and buckwheat. Eierbal is a deep-fried egg in ragout, eaten in Groningen and Drenthe.

This region also has heavy, solid varieties of pastries, cookies, and breads. Each province has a rye bread tradition, but Friesland's rye bread (Fries roggebrood) is well-known for its sweet flavour and dark colour from long baking. Unlike southern Dutch bread, northeastern bread and pastries are hard and spiced with ginger or succade or contain small bits of meat. Examples include kruidkoek (such as Groninger koek), Frisian suikerbrood (with sugar chunks), Fryske dúmkes (cookies with anise, ginger, and hazelnuts), and spekdik (small pancakes with metworst and bacon).

In alcoholic beverages, the region is known for bitters like Beerenburg and other high-proof liquors. Groningen is a 'jenever city' and home to the Hooghoudt distillery. Friesland, with its low-lying pastures, also produces cheese. Friese Nagelkaas (Friesian clove cheese) is notable, and kanterkaas made with skimmed milk has a protected designation of origin.

Southern cuisine

Southern Dutch cuisine is from North Brabant and Limburg and the Flemish Region in Belgium. It is known for rich pastries, soups, stews, and vegetable dishes, often called Bourgondisch, referring to the Burgundian dukes who ruled the Low Countries in the Middle Ages.

This region developed haute cuisine and forms the base of most traditional Dutch restaurants. Main courses like Biefstuk, Varkenshaas, and Ossenhaas, which are premium cuts of pork or beef, are served with sauces and potatoes double fried in the traditional Dutch or Belgian manner.

Stews like hachee, made of onions, beef, and thick gravy, are flavourful and take hours to prepare. Vegetable soups are made from rich stock or bouillon and include small meatballs and various vegetables. Asparagus and witloof are prized and traditionally eaten with cheese or ham.

In Southern regions, a variant of the croquette developed from butcher-run production of long-braised beef ragout, known as the “butcher's croquette.” In Amsterdam, a diced-veal-meat croquette (blokjesvleeskroket) became common in luxury patisserie-linked brands since the 1940s.

Pastries are abundant, often with rich fillings of cream, custard, and fruits from fruit orchards in the Betuwe region. Cakes like Limburgse vlaai from Limburg and Moorkop and Bossche Bol from Brabant are typical. Savoury pastries also exist, with the Brabantse worstenbroodje (a roll with ground beef sausage) being popular and part of the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage.

Limburg is known for appelstroop (apple butter), which may have originated there.

The traditional alcoholic beverage is beer. Many local brands exist, from Trappist beer to Kriek lambic. Five of the 11 International Trappist Association-recognised breweries are in the Southern Dutch cultural area. Beer, like wine in French cuisine, is also used in cooking, often in stews.

Colonial

Indonesian

Indonesian and Indo dishes became popular due to Dutch colonials and Eurasian people arriving in the Netherlands after Indonesia's independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945. Countess Cornelia van Limburg Stirum writes in her book The Art of Dutch Cooking (1962) that many Indonesian dishes exist, but a few easy ones have become national dishes. She provides recipes for nasi goreng (fried rice), pisang goreng (fried bananas), lumpia goreng (fried spring rolls), bami (fried noodles), saté (grilled skewered meat), satésaus (satay sauce or peanut sauce), and sambal oelek (chilli paste). Dutch-Indonesian fusion dishes include rijsttafel (an elaborate meal with many small dishes), spekkoek (a layered cake), and babi pangang speciaal (served in a sweet sour sauce unlike in Indonesia). Popular Indonesian-Dutch fusion dishes at snackbars are patatje oorlog (French fries with mayonnaise, onions, and peanut sauce), patatje pinda (French fries with peanut sauce), bamischijf (or bamiblok), and nasischijf (or nasiblok). Long sheets of krupuk are also popular.

Outside big cities, Indonesian food is served in Chinese restaurants, and almost every town has a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant. In the 1980s, 60% of Dutch people dined at a Chinese Indonesian restaurant, with 30% doing so at least once a month. This Chinese-Indonesian restaurant culture, where three cultures come together, was acknowledged as Dutch intangible cultural heritage in February 2021 and needs preservation.

Surinamese and Caribbean

Surinamese cuisine is popular in the Netherlands, especially in bigger cities. Surinamese restaurants often serve roti, a staple of the Hindustani community in Suriname, various Surinamese versions of Chinese Indonesian cuisine, and Surinamese sandwiches like broodje bakkeljauw (with dried and salted cod) and broodje pom.

International

The first Italian restaurants appeared in the fifties, followed by Turkish and Moroccan kebab and shawarma restaurants, and American fast food restaurants in the seventies, sometimes leading to Dutch fusion dishes like kapsalon (based on kebab), McKroket, and McFlurry stroopwafel (sold only in Dutch McDonald's restaurants). In bigger cities, foods from around the world are now available in shops and restaurants.

Structure of meals

Breakfast

Breakfast in the Netherlands often includes bread with butter and sweet toppings like chocolate sprinkles, flakes, and jam. Dutch bread is usually made from yeast dough and is often whole-grain with added seeds like sunflower or pumpkin. Rye bread is one of the denser types of bread, while white bread was once a special treat. A popular breakfast cake is ontbijtkoek, which is like a soft gingerbread but with less ginger and more sugar. Another common breakfast food is beschuit, a crisp bake served with cheese or sweet toppings.

On weekends, many Dutch people enjoy pannenkoeken, which are large, thin pancakes filled with ingredients like apples, cheese, or chocolate. They can also be served as a dinner dish with toppings like bacon or salmon.

Lunch

Lunch in the Netherlands is usually lighter than dinner. It often includes dishes like uitsmijter, which features eggs fried with bacon or cheese. Peanut butter is a popular bread topping, and cheese is also commonly enjoyed. Dutch cheeses like Gouda and Edam are famous worldwide.

Coffee break and sweets

Dutch people often gather for koffietijd, a coffee break with cake or biscuits. Traditional Dutch treats include stroopwafels (thin waffles filled with syrup) and speculaas (spiced cookies). Other popular sweets are bitterkoekjes (small round cookies) and spekkoek (layered cake).

Dinner

Dinner in the Netherlands is typically served early, around 6 p.m. Traditional meals include stamppot, a dish made from mashed potatoes mixed with vegetables and served with meat. Another classic is snert, a thick pea soup often eaten in winter. Other popular dishes are gehaktballen (meatballs) and pannenkoeken (pancakes).

Toetje

The final course, or toetje, is usually a sweet dessert. Common choices include vla, a thin milk pudding that comes in flavors like chocolate and vanilla, and stoofperen, poached pears served with yogurt or ice cream. Other desserts like broodpap (bread porridge) and grutten (a type of groat) are also enjoyed.

Special occasions

The birth of a child is a special time for serving beschuit met muisjes – Dutch rusk covered with sugared aniseed. The aniseed used to be pink for girls and blue for boys, but now orange is also used for royal babies. It’s common to share this treat with visitors or give it when telling friends about the new baby. Dutch funerals are usually simple, often with a slice of butter cake and a cup of coffee or tea.

The Dutch celebrate Sinterklaas on December 5th. Saint Nicholas leaves gifts in children’s shoes. People enjoy hot chocolate and special foods like speculaas (spiced cookies), boterletter (a pastry shaped like a letter), and marsepein (marzipan shaped like animals). Everyone gets a chocolate letter that matches the first letter of their name.

Christmas, or Kerst, is a family time in the Netherlands. Families often have a brunch with kerststol, a special fruit bread. For dinner, people might enjoy roast pork or other special foods.

On New Year’s Eve, known as Oud en Nieuw, Dutch families enjoy oliebollen – warm, fried dough balls – and appelbeignets, which are apple fritters.

During Easter, or Pasen, shops fill up with chocolate eggs. People enjoy eating Paasstol, a type of bread.

Fast food

The Dutch enjoy special kinds of fast food from snack bars. A popular choice is French fries, called patat or friet. They come with tasty sauces like mayonnaise, peanut sauce, ketchup, or a mix of these.

Other snacks include deep-fried meat treats such as frikandel (minced meat sausage) and kroket (a ragout roll with a crispy crust). There are also fish options like Hollandse nieuwe (soused herring) and kibbeling (deep-fried fish chunks).