pierke

Hutspot is a vegetable stew with onions, carrots and parsnips. Klapstuk is the rib of beef that goes with it. So nothing like your awful Bubble and Squeak! Pierke

Is this meant as a pun? I love rhubarb, even all year round. Pierke

I got myself into a fix here! Now I have to come up with examples of typical Dutch ingredients! Let's try: There’s a uniform coloured brown bean, aptly called ‘bruine boon’, with looks like your borlotti/cranberry bean but tastes slightly different. If you translated from Dutch to American it could perfectly well be substitute by cranberry beans. Then there’s the ‘witte boon’, a white bean like you Navy bean, they even may be the same bean. But as I haven’t found canned Navy beans in a Dutch shop, I can’t be entirely sure. The next legume is the one that’s really unique; it’s called ‘kapucijner’ (Capuchin) or ‘grauwe erwt’ (grey pea); it has a greyish colour and an uneven shape. It’s part of the pea family. The seeds are also eaten fresh and in both guises, have a very distinct flavour. You either like them or hate them. When looking at the shelves with canned beans in a Dutch supermarket, you’ll find them there in their fresh and dried (cooked) form. They really are delicious, but if you don’t incorporate them in cookery books I’m sure they will be forgotten in the end. There are several vegetables seldomly mentioned in translated cookery books, that abound in Dutch markets when they are in season: postelein (purslane), schorseneren (salsify), pastinaak (parsnips) and raapstelen (turnip greens). ‘Witlof’ (endive, chicory, witloof), ‘veldsla’ (corn salad, mache) and rabarber (rhubarb) are sometimes treaty as expensive novelties in cookbooks of foreign origin, while in Holland they are cheap and available whole year round. On the other hand American recipes use vegetables that are expensive over here or totally unobtainable. Swiss chard for example is only grown in private vegetable gardens: the same with Collards. Romaine has only just been introduced to Holland via ethnic markets and still is expensive. Arugula is also a recent re-introduction (it once was a common salad herb grown in most vegetable gardens) and because of a hype is very expensive. Radicchio you can only buy at Italian delicatessen, not at the normal supermarket. Broccoli raap and sprouting broccoli I only saw once, the prize was fantastic. (This is not a complete list, but at the moment I can’t come up with more) Besides all this there are groceries that are not available in Holland, but used in a lot of foreign recipes: double cream (especially English cookbooks), real vanilla-essence (only the artificial vanilla extract is for sale), canned crushed pineapple, cream style sweet corn, gluten flour and maple sugar to name a few. Of course most of the Dutch cheeses are not used in foreign recipes; instead they use cheeses the average Dutch cook is unfamiliar with. In 1993 I bought Delia Smith’s Summer Collection in a Dutch translation. It contains a wonderful recipe for Baked Halloumi Cheese. I’ve search for years for this cheese, since 2000 I know a specialty shop in Groningen who has a steady supply. As a vegetarian I don’t know a lot about meat, but I’m sure that in that section of the market you miss out on some traditional ingredients too. So every thing considered, when a Dutch cook only has access to translated foreign cookbooks he/she is in for a lot of frustration. Hope this gives an idea of the differences. Pierke

Suzanne, About 90% of cookbooks published in Holland are translations from English, American, Australian and German!!! I think most translations are done under a lot of time pressure, so even translations of books by such celebrities as Delia Smith would be more accurate if the translator did have sufficient time. In addition I think that most cookbooks aren’t translated by cooks, but I could be awfully wrong on this point. Dutch cuisine of course differs from English (and American) cuisine, so when you translate an English language cookbook verbatim problems arise that could only be overcome by editing. And I don’t think persons like Delia Smith or Nigella Lawson want there books being ‘tampered’ with. For instance, English authors make use of double cream, which is not obtainable in Holland. Translators either translate this with ‘slagroom’ (whipping cream), which definitely is not the same thing and makes the outcome of the recipe fail dismally. The more dedicated translator will state in a footnote that double cream isn’t available in Holland and that you’d better not try the recipe. That’s one part of my complaint; the other half has nothing to do with the translation but with the scarcity of recipes in translated cookbooks that use normal everyday Dutch produce. This way certain legumes and vegetables that are typical for Holland don’t get the attention they deserve. Pierke

Hi Moopheus, Don’t feel slighted by my ignorance of the book trade, for I’m a relative newcomer to this business. First of all I think I have the wrong friends! Since the coming of the Euro there’s a steady decline in book purchasing. I live near the university town of Groningen, which can boast of several good bookstores, but some of them are reorganizing and firing half of their personnel. Most of my life I’ve squandered a big part of my income on book (not alone cookbooks), but lately this has become too expensive, so now I only buy at closeouts and sales (and second hand). I think this goes for a lot of my countrymen. Secondly I thought that bookshops selling overstocks, were selling those books that had disappointing sales figures and thus literally speaking are business fiascos. I’m not saying that those books are not well written, on the contrary! Maybe that’s what you mean by: the biggest threat to book publishing is book publishers. Pierke

Thanks for all your positive response. Only Mungo gives vent to my suspicion that the professional recipe writer will become extinct as soon as every home on this planet has his super fast internet connection (and that point in time isn’t that far off, I’m afraid). Although I myself belong to that group of people that buys almost every food related book it can lay its hands on and love to read them cover to cover leisurely in bed, I’m not so sure about book addiction in the computer orientated generation that’s growing up at this moment. Most of your contributions are really uplifting; it gives me food for thought. That in another thread (which in the mean time I’ve read) in this forum people confess to be compulsory cookbook buyers doesn’t mean that this is pandemic. In my own circle of acquaintances buying books is not an every day occurrence and cookbooks you only buy once or twice in a lifetime (Mostly the Dutch equivalents for your Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking). When Moopheus states that there always will be a demand for cookbooks following the latest trends and fads, I want to interrupt and shout: but I don’t want to write a book like that!! (Although once on commission I did a book about the Montignac diet) Why are there so many bookshops on the internet that sell overstock and why is a big part of the books they sell cookery books? It seems in this forum I ran into several people connected with writing and publishing cookbooks. And although in the US this maybe is a ‘stupid’ business, I think the approach to cookery writing in your country is much more professional than in Holland. There even are books written about how to write cookbooks. Amazing!! Over here, when I tell somebody that I earn my living with writing cookbooks and food related articles, I usually get a rather condescending: ‘Oh, how nice.” for an answer. The philosophy behind why I’m writing in the first place is that I think there’s a lot of crap out there. The Dutch market is flooded with bad translations of cookbooks by English TV cooking celebrities, full of recipes in which the use of unobtainable ingredients is one of the major irritations. I want to write a cookbook with recipes that really work, that are tasteful and inventive and make use of ingredients that are available in the average Dutch supermarket and typical of Dutch cuisine. My biggest worry is that after a lot of trial and error I’ve come up with a novel way to combine a few ingredients into a flavourful recipe and that the next morning at the breakfast table, I see that the food writer in the morning paper decided to publish almost the same concept and gives it away for free. Thanks for your support, Pierke

Hi, I’m new to this community and glad that I found it, for there’s such a wealth of information and a lot to discover. I’m a caterer who recently has ventured into food writing. Planning my third cookbook I sometimes wonder why I’m doing this. Ok, to make a living and because I do love cooking, eating and almost everything that’s connected with food. Reason enough, but what about all those thousands and thousands of recipes already available on the web and all these wonderful cookbooks packed with tasty recipes and practical advise. Is their really a demand for still more recipes; hasn’t everything already been written down for the umpteenth time. Well, short and good here’s my question: isn’t there an overkill of recipes on this planet? Or can I confidently go on 'cooking up' cookbooks? Pierke