Culinary History of the Netherlands

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Continuity and Change in the Culinary History of the Netherlands, 1945-75 Author(s): Catherine Salzman Source: Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Oct., 1986), pp. 605-628Published by: Sage Publications, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/260588Accessed: 06-08-2015 10:53 UTC

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Catherine Salzman

Continuity and Change in the Culinary History of the Netherlands,

1945-75

There are a number of factors which have inhibited the study of culinary history. Firstly, there has been a tendency to consider eating habits as of marginal importance. A more difficult problem is that the historian seldom has an opportunity to look directly at the evidence: by the time it has become history it has either been eaten or decayed.

In the past few years, however, several books have been written by historians and anthropologists interested in culinary history as an aspect of social, economic or cultural history. In general, four types of primary sources are available: quantitative sources, questionnaires, literary sources and recipes. Each type of source has its own advantages and disadvantages.

Quantitative sources include aggregate statistics on production and consumption as well as budget data. Such sources, especially those concerning the twentieth century, are easily accessible and are essential for the study of the influence of income on nutrition or the relative importance of various types of foods in the total diet, such as vegetables and proteins. However, not only is it often impossible to find quantitative data covering a long period without gaps, it is also impossible on the basis of quantitative material alone to see how a single product is used and how it is combined with other products in a national or regional cuisine. The precision of quantitative sources is more apparent than real.

Literary and other artistic sources, on the other hand, can be extremely helpful to a historian trying to place a type of food in its dietary context.2 The major disadvantage of literary sources is that they are widely scattered.

Another type of source which is helpful in building up a more complete picture of changes in patterns of consumption is the questionnaire.3 Not only is this kind of research extremely time- consuming and therefore costly, it also 'cannot but reflect the structure of thought which the investigators carry to their problems'.4

Journal of Contemporary History (SAGE, London, Beverly Hills, Newbury Park and New Delhi), Vol. 21 (1986), 605-628



Journal of Contemporary History

This article makes use of the results of a survey conducted in 1980 by the NIAM (Nederlands Instituut voor Agrarisch Marktonderzoek or the Dutch Institute for Agricultural Marketing Research),5 involving 1600 households. The results cannot, of course, document historical changes, but they do illustrate the situation as it is today and show what socio-cultural factors play a role in influencing eating habits.

Recipes, which form the most important primary source for this article, have a different kind of advantage and disadvantage. Their main advantage is that they show how food is actually prepared. But the presence of a recipe in a cookbook or periodical does not mean that it is widely used. The vast majority of cookbooks have been written for cooks preparing food for the most wealthy social classes. Even they do not tell us very much about what elite groups eat on a day-to-day basis. In this field, as in others, everyday matters are often not considered worth the trouble of writing down.

In the twentieth century, and especially after the second world war, the number of cookbooks published increased exponentially. But very few of the recipes in them can be used for the study of culinary history, except, perhaps those printed in popular women's magazines, such as Margriet, or in a cookbook that has been regularly updated, like The Hague Cookbook (Het Haagse Kookboek).

Margriet first appeared in 1938 and became the women's magazine with the highest circulation in the Netherlands. Margriet's personal advice column, called 'Margriet knows what to do', has already been analysed by two sociologists, Christien Brinkgreve and Michel Korzec. Brinkgreve and Korzec's conclusions regarding the personal advice column correspond to my own findings on Margriet's culinary advice. They point out that it was the editors' policy to try to be in the vanguard of social change, encouraging their readers to discard traditional taboos while at the same time making their ideas acceptable to as large a proportion of the population as possible, as well as to advertisers.6 The same can be said of Margriet's culinary advice.

The editors of Margriet constantly make judgements about what is acceptable to the public, as is reflected in the contents of the columns. For example, when Margriet's culinary columns began to publish recipes which included wine or other alcoholic beverages, this did not mean that there was a sudden shift in the way most housewives cooked. It did reflect a judgement, however, and certainly a correct judgement, that such recipes were now acceptable to the vast majority of the population, at least for special occasions.7

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Salzman: Culinary History of the Netherlands

In 1961, Margriet's publishers carried out a survey of its readers, which indicated that these readers were representative of the

population as a whole, with respect to factors like income, religion and place of domicile. Of course, even an editorial staff armed with the best of surveys can misjudge its readers. A new initiative can be a failure. But, in general, the type of articles published in a magazine like Margriet tell the historian something about its readers and their tastes.

In addition to the culinary columns of Margriet, this article also examines advertisements. When a new product begins to be advertised

regularly, it is a sign that it has become widely available. Of course, there is a difference between the extent to which a given type of product is advertised and the role it plays in the total diet. A new

product will often fail to catch on. More important, processed foods are over-represented in advertisements in comparison to fresh foods, because it only makes economic sense to advertise goods that the producer can put on the market on a large scale. Producers of fresh foods are rarely large enough to advertise. Dairy products are the exception that proves the rule. Advertisements for these are made possible by associations of dairy co-operatives.8

The Hague Cookbook was first published in 1934 and the sixty- ninth edition appeared in 1982. The book has been continually revised, but the basic format has changed very little. With the sixty- ninth edition, the title was slightly altered to the New Hague Cookbook, which is something of a misnomer. The Hague Cookbook is, in fact, the most famous example of a type of cookbook very common in the Netherlands, a domestic science school cookbook, written by members of the staff and originally intended for its pupils.9

Not very many people regularly use recipes from cookbooks or magazines, a point illustrated by the NIAM survey. While sixty-two per cent of housewives asked said they sometimes used a cookbook and forty-four per cent said they sometimes used recipes from a magazine or newspaper, the proportion who did so at least once a week was small, as shown in Table 1.

The fact that few housewives cook from a recipe more than once a week reflects the fact that most cooking is routine. Seventy per cent of women under thirty-five sometimes use a cookbook while only fifty- one per cent of those over fifty do so. This is because younger women are inexperienced in cooking. Housewives who work more than twenty hours a week outside the home are more apt to use a cookbook than women who do not work outside the home (73 per

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TABLE 1 Housewives Making Use of Recipes, in per cent

cookbook magazine or newspaper

Never 38 56 Sometimes 62 44

several times a week 2 1 once a week 6 6 2-3 times a month 10 3 once a month 12 8 4-5 times in 6 months 7 6 2-3 times in 6 months 12 10 once in 6 months or less 12 10

cent v. 60 per cent) but less apt to use recipes from a magazine or newspaper (35 per cent v. 44 per cent). Women from the top social class are more apt to follow a recipe from a cookbook (70 per cent) or magazine or newspaper (57 per cent) than women from the lowest social class (43 per cent and 33 per cent).10

The frequency with which people cook from recipes is, however, of secondary importance. It is the contention of this article that recipes represent ideal meals and that changes in these ideals are part of a society's cultural history. Via a study of a carefully chosen set of recipes, it is possible to investigate these changes. By also examining the type of ingredients used, it is possible to clarify the relationship between the economics and the culture of food.

The first section of this article describes basic changes in diet in the post-war period. The second section covers the culinary advice offered in Margriet and The Hague Cookbook and how it has changed. The third section deals with how the Dutch reacted to dishes from abroad, in particular from the United States and Indonesia. The concluding section analyses some of the factors that have resulted in changes in eating habits and others which one might have expected to result in changes but which, in fact, did not.

Dutch daily meals consist of one hot meal, with meat, vegetables and almost always potatoes, two 'bread meals', made up of sandwiches, and pauses for coffee or tea. This pattern has changed very little since the war. 1 The most important change in the Dutch eating habit has been in the time of day at which most people eat their hot meal.

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Traditionally, this was served at midday. But by 1980, 71 per cent of all Dutch households always took their hot meal on weekdays in the evening. On Saturdays and Sundays this was only 38 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.12

Many Dutch people and all foreigners who have spent any length of time in the Netherlands will agree with A.P. den Hartog's description of the Dutch cuisine: 'A certain soberness in the meals cannot be denied'. 3 Post-war prosperity brought new dishes and new ingredients, somewhat lessening this soberness.

There has been a decrease in the consumption of inexpensive and starchy foods, like potatoes and bread, and an increase in the consumption of more expensive foods like meat and processed foods, and therefore in the consumption of fats. The average person now obtains more than 40 per cent of his or her calorie intake from fats, as compared to 33 per cent in 1936. While it is true that since the mid-1960s there has been some decrease in the use of'visible' fats, like butter and vegetable oils, the use of 'invisible' fats, such as those in meat, cheese and packaged snacks has continued to rise. Various sorts of potato chips and peanuts began to be advertised in Margriet in 1967. Excess consumption was accompanied by concern. In fact, since the early 1970s, the Dutch housewife, like her counterparts in other countries, can be said to have developed a schizophrenic attitude with respect to fat. Advertisements for artificial sweeteners and artificially sweetened beverages began appearing in 1967. In 1971 the first advertisements for diet margarine, diet mayonnaise and diet evaporated milk, which the Dutch use in their coffee, began appearing alongside advertisements for the normal varieties. One reason why these 'diet' products have become so widely available is that they are extremely profitable for their manufacturers.14 Readers of women's magazines are given more and more low calorie recipes from which to choose. Beginning in the late 1960s, the Nutrition Information Office added a number of brochures on weight control to its standard series on subjects such as preparing vegetables and hygiene in the kitchen.

Drinking habits have also changed. The consumption of coffee, of carbonated drinks and of alcohol has increased dramatically. In Margriet, the first advertisements for Coca-Cola appeared in 1954. Advertisements for beer, wine and liquors began to appear regularly in 1959 and for all types of carbonated drinks in 1964.

Technological changes have meant that a wide variety of indus- trially processed foods, like canned and packaged soups, vegetables

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and fruit and 'convenience' foods, such as frozen dinners, instant puddings and rice and instant coffee have come on the market. To judge from the advertisements, frozen vegetables were available in 1951, but it was not until about 1970 that they really seem to have been sold on a large scale. The first advertisements for instant coffee appeared in 1955 and for instant rice in 1960. Instant puddings were advertised in Margriet in 1951. It was only in the 1970s, with the advent of inexpensive plastic packaging, that desserts from the refrigerated section of the supermarket became commonplace.

The transportation revolution has meant that fresh fruit and vegetables can be imported from distant countries. With the help of hothouses, heated by cheap natural gas, some of these fruit and vegetables are produced in the Netherlands. Melons, peppers, mushrooms and aubergines have come on the market and women's magazines and cookbooks teach the housewife what to do with them.

Another result of technology is that between 2,000 and 3,000 different synthetic food additives are available to industry.15 This has produced increased interest in 'natural foods'. As of 1983, one third of all Dutch households purchased natural foods at least occasionally.16

Most people up until 1940 and everyone from 1940 to 1945 had to be economical with respect to food. This necessity was made into a virtue. Since the 1950s, however, this virtue has gradually been discarded. The sandwiches the Dutch still eat twice a day have become more thickly spread. Bread now takes second place to what is

put on it. Furthermore, it was estimated that ten per cent of all bread bought in 1976 ended up being thrown away.'7 Other signs of diminished frugality include the increasing tendency to purchase meals or snacks outside the home, sometimes in restaurants, but more often in canteens or out of a machine. More people also eat snacks between meals or in the evening, a trend which can be seen as a

change in eating habits generally.

In the post-war period, the culinary advice offered in Margriet changed fundamentally. The single most important change appeared in the 1960s and 1970s when more and more emphasis came to be

placed on variety, on the pleasure of trying something different. In

1951, this theme was mentioned in only six of the culinary columns. In 1975 it was mentioned in twenty-four.

Ironically enough, recipes 'that grandma used to make' have become more and more popular, although one can be sure that

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granny would never have recognized most of them.'8 The very concept of being 'old-fashioned' has taken on a different meaning. In the immediate post-war period, old-fashioned cooking was mentioned infrequently and only pejoratively. Since the 1960s, it has gained positive attributes, associated with good health and honesty.

We have already mentioned the increase in attention to weight control. This seems to have peaked in 1971, when eleven issues of Margriet contained some information on dieting. There has also been a marked increase in the use of herbs and spices.

The greater social acceptance of the use of alcohol also found its way into the culinary columns. In the second half of 1975 alone, ten issues contained recipes requiring wine, beer, port or sherry or had a bottle of wine pictured in the background.

More and more frequently, housewives have been advised to adapt their menu to the time of year: for example, to use summer vegetables in the summer and winter vegetables in the winter or to substitute macaroni for old potatoes in the spring. It is somewhat surprising that just as technology theoretically was making it possible for choice of ingredients to become independent of season, more rather than less emphasis came to be placed on seasonal variation.

The amount of space that Margriet devoted to culinary advice expanded considerably in the post-war period, but so did the magazine as a whole. What has changed relatively as well as absolutely is the number of advertisements.

Another significant change is in the amount of interest expressed by readers in culinary matters. When, in 1950, Margriet invited readers to submit culinary questions, the response was very limited. But, by 1975, Margriet was carrying on a sustained dialogue with readers, answering their questions and publishing recipes submitted by them.

There has been a major rise in the level of technology expected in the kitchens of the readers of Margriet's culinary columns, but this change appears to have taken place rather late compared with other western countries. In 1959, Margriet told readers they did not need a refrigerator in order to be able to serve desserts or drinks with ice-cream in them, so long as they could get someone to produce the ice-cream at the right moment. Cakes could be baked on top of the stove in a 'wonderpan' and large cuts of meat could also be cooked on top of the stove if one did not have an oven. As late as 1967, in a series of articles on new kitchen equipment, two of the five kitchens pictured had only gas burners, no oven.'9 It is only since the early

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1970s that the presence of an oven in the kitchen has been more or less assumed. Even today, few Dutch kitchens have blenders, let alone food processors.

Among the unchanged aspects of Margriet's culinary columns is the assumption that in every family the woman is responsible for the kitchen. The NIAM report, under the influence of the women's movement, states that the person interviewed was 'either the housewife or the person who served that function in the household'. In all but a tiny number of cases this was a woman. Margriet is more conservative in this respect, or perhaps simply more realistic. In

Margriet, more and more attention came to be paid to the admiration and even love a woman could receive from family and friends as a result of her achievements in the kitchen. Surely this must be seen as a substitute for the admiration many women were seeking, and even more were thinking about seeking, outside the home. At least up until 1975, the woman of the house, as portrayed in Margriet's culinary columns, could only expect to get a little help from husband or children, and that help was largely confined to Mother's Day.

Also unchanged in Margriet's culinary advice is the amount of

emphasis placed on the nutritional value of the food served, which was mentioned in about twelve per cent of the columns. In addition, a

relatively constant proportion of recipes, some fifteen per cent, were intended for national or religious holidays.

The most interesting aspects of Margriet's culinary advice are those that encompass elements of stability and change at the same time. One of the consistent themes in Margriet's columns is the housewife's

responsibility to be economical with the family's household budget, but there has been a major change in the concept of what constitutes

being economical. The increase in disposable income meant that

products which were once luxuries became staples. A good example of such a product is cheese. In February 1951, Margriet recommended making cheese dishes for a 'festive lunch' even though that was 'not

inexpensive'. But in October 1971, dishes with cheese were recommended partly because they were inexpensive. The single most

important food which the Dutch are used to the idea of not wasting is, of course, their daily bread. In March 1946, Margriet published an article with recipes for stale bread, including French toast and bread

pudding. The introduction commented that even though there was now enough to go around it was still wrong to throw any away. But in

1972, when Margriet again published recipes using old bread, the motivation given for trying them was taste. No mention was made of

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economy.20 It is still quite un-Dutch and offensive to traditional frugality to cover any piece of bread with more than one thin layer of anything. But since the mid-1960s, Margriet has regularly made suggestions for double-decker sandwiches or sandwiches with more than one filling. This is evidently now judged acceptable for special occasions.

A similar change has occurred with regard to what constitutes a festive occasion. In a column in March 1963, for example, readers were given a cake recipe and told, 'If there's no special reason for a celebration then let's make a reason'. This change should be seen in the light of a shift that was taking place at the same time in the nature of the advice in Margriet's personal advice column, a shift away from thinking in terms of what society expected one to do and towards a careful consideration of one's own goals and desires.21

Another constant feature of Margriet's culinary advice is emphasis on dishes that are not too difficult. But there has also been a change in what is not considered difficult. In 1956, an attractively presented meat dish, with vegetables and potatoes on the side, was something that 'does not demand much extra effort or time'. But in 1971, a souffle was 'easier than you think'.22

A major change in the way the Dutch prepare their food has taken place in the length of time they boil their vegetables. Taste has shifted away from mushy vegetables and in favour of an al dente approach. Margriet consistently advocated shorter cooking times, but often indirectly, through implication, rather than by direct reproach: 'We prepare the old-fashioned winter dishes, but in a modern way. Cabbage doesn't have to be boiled for hours.'23 In this way, Margriet could advise shorter cooking times without offending more traditional readers.

More information can be obtained by comparing various editions of The Hague Cookbook. The vegetable recipes in The Hague Cookbook are easy to compare, because the ingredients, and even the order in which the recipes are presented, hardly change from one edition to another. Only the boiling times change dramatically. For purposes of comparison, I have used only those vegetable recipes where the vegetable is boiled and then finished off with some kind of sauce. (See Table 2.)

In interpreting this data, it is well to keep in mind that not all this change is due to changes in taste. Before refrigeration or the transport of vegetables over long distances became commonplace, many vegetables were kept in the cellar the whole winter and really did have

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TABLE 2 Boiling Times for Vegetables (in minutes)

1936 1938 1947 1957 1971

Curly endive 45 30-45 30 30 20

Belgian endive +/- 30 +/- 30 +/- 30 +/- 30 20 Cauliflower +/- 20 15 +/- 15 10-15 10-20 Red cabbage +/- 120 +/- 120 +/-30 +/- 30 30 Sauerkraut +/- 120 +/- 120 +/-60 30-45 30 Brussels sprouts +/- 20 +/- 20 +/- 15 +/-10 10-12 Beets +/- 180 +/- 180 60 60 60 Leeks +/- 45 +/-45 30 20 20 Winter carrots +/- 60 +/- 45 20-30 20 20 Fresh peas 45-60 45-60 45-60 10-45 10-30

Young pea pods 45-60 15 15 6 6

to be boiled a long time in order to become tender. Even more

important, there is no agreement as to the correct length of time for

boiling any type of vegetable, even among that group of persons who could be termed 'good cooks'. Furthermore, it is obvious that few cooks always go by the book. It is hardly likely that everyone rushed out to update their edition of The Hague Cookbook each time a new one was issued.

It is not possible to attribute changes to increased knowledge about nutrition. It is true that shorter boiling times preserve some vitamins and that the editors of The Hague Cookbook were in contact with the Nutrition Information Office. But if the editors had based their instructions strictly on the basis of what was known about nutrition, then the boiling times would have been shorter from the beginning. The Nutrition Information Office had, since its creation in 1940, always recommended short boiling times.24

Every edition of The Hague Cookbook has prefaced its chapter on

vegetables with some general remarks. The 1938 edition stated: 'It is with respect to the preparation of vegetables that contemporary knowledge of nutrition has had the most impact'.25 It went on to recommend boiling vegetables for as short a time as possible and also advocated eating some raw vegetables, in the form of salad, every day. A similar message can be found in every edition of The Hague Cookbook down to the present one.

How it could take so long for practice to catch up with theory remains something of a mystery. A comparison of boiling times in the

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1943 and 1973 editions of The Joy of Cooking, a standard, if not the standard, American cookbook, shows very little change. Boiling times in the 1943 edition were already quite short.26 It is not inconceivable that this change in Dutch practice has to do with the fact that the Dutch can now afford more tender cuts of meat. As meat no longer requires as much chewing, perhaps people gradually have felt a need to shift their masticating activities elsewhere.27

Brinkgreve and Korzec conclude that it was between 1966 and 1970 that the tempo of change in Margriet's personal advice column was particularly fast. The same can be said of its culinary advice. But they also point out that there was a great deal of continuity.28 This applies to the recipes in Margriet and The Hague Cookbook as well. In the concluding section of this essay, an attempt will be made to account for both change and continuity.

Eating habits can only change if the new habits fit into the environment in some way and this is determined by social, political and economic factors. This section will deal with the extent to which Chinese-Indonesian and American dishes have become adopted in the Netherlands since the war.

In the 1930s, a few immigrants from China opened the first Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands. In the late 1940s and early 1950s there were three great waves of immigration from Indonesia, which until 1949 was a Dutch colony. Many of the immigrants were ethnic Chinese and several of them opened restaurants.29 Even though these restaurants often have an ethnic affinity with the mainland Chinese, their food is quite different. The menus almost always include Chinese and Indonesian dishes. In fact, Chinese-Indonesian cuisine is really a separate cuisine in its own right, combining Chinese, Indonesian and Dutch elements. The signboards outside these restaurants clearly identify them as 'Chinese-Indonesian'. Everyday speech, on the other hand, is not so precise. When people talk about a 'Chinese restaurant', they almost invariably mean a Chinese-Indo- nesian one. Chinese-Indonesian cuisine has become a part of Dutch cuisine.30 Indonesian food proper has remained much less important.

Partly as a result of the post-war immigration from Indonesia and partly because about 100,000 Dutch soldiers had fought in Indonesia, a mass market developed for Chinese-Indonesian dishes. Most of the immigrants settled in the western part of the country, sometimes frequenting Chinese-Indonesian or Indonesian restaurants, more

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often preparing Chinese, Chinese-Indonesian or Indonesian food in their homes. The discharged soldiers returned to their homes in every area of the Netherlands and from them a taste for Chinese- Indonesian food spread to those who had no links with Indonesia. This can be explained in part by nostalgia for the days when the Netherlands was a great colonial power, but also relevant is the fact that Chinese-Indonesian restaurants are relatively inexpensive and serve large portions - an important consideration for a population that was not then in the habit of eating out nor of spending large sums of money on food. Finally, one of the main reasons for the

popularity of Chinese-Indonesian food, in a restaurant or in the home, is that it tastes good and provides a pleasant variation.

As of 1980, some 55 per cent of all Dutch households ate at least occasionally in a Chinese-Indonesian restaurant, whereas only 21 per cent ate in other foreign restaurants (see Table 3). As one would

expect, a higher percentage of those in the top income group eat out than those in the lowest income group: 67 per cent v. 42 per cent for Chinese-Indonesian restaurants and 28 per cent v. 11 per cent for other foreign restaurants. The part of the country in which they live makes very little difference to the frequency with which Dutch households eat in Chinese-Indonesian restaurants, but a big difference to the frequency with which they eat in other foreign restaurants. This is because Chinese-Indonesian restaurants can be found all over the

country, whereas other foreign restaurants are concentrated in the

large cities in the western part of the country.31

TABLE 3 Households Eating in Chinese-Indonesian or other Foreign Restaurants,

by Region of Country, in per cent

3 Largest Cities Rest of Total and Their Suburbs West North East South

Chinese-Indonesian 55 60 56 49 57 53 Other Foreign 21 30 20 14 23 16

The culinary articles and advertisements in Margriet give an idea of how Chinese-Indonesian food is served in Dutch homes. In 1950, Margriet published its first recipes for Chinese-Indonesian dishes: bami (fried noodles) and loempiah (egg rolls). In 1955, the first advertisements began to appear for the various spices and condiments

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needed to prepare Chinese-Indonesian food in the home. Most telling of all, the convenience food industry started producing Chinese- Indonesian dishes. Advertisements for canned nasi (fried rice) and bami began to appear in 1954. In 1962, housewives could buy frozen nasi and bami appetizers that could be warmed up in the oven. A variety of other dishes could be made with the help of packet sauces in powdered form, which became widely available in the 1960s.

Obviously, the Chinese-Indonesian dishes popular in the Nether- lands have been adapted to Dutch taste. For one thing, they are considerably more mildly seasoned. But more important, European ingredients are substituted for Asian ones, as is illustrated by Margriet's recipe for a loempiah. The loempiah also illustrates the combination of Chinese, Indonesian and Dutch elements in Chinese- Indonesian food. The loempiah was a Chinese import to Indonesia. When it was brought from Indonesia to the Netherlands, it grew to somewhat enormous dimensions, usually about 20 cms. by 8 cms. The recipe in Margriet called for sauteed cabbage, leeks, celery, pork and shrimps (no bean sprouts or other eastern vegetables, or bean curd), wrapped in a crepe and then deep-fried. The result is a rather heavy concoction, bearing only a passing resemblance to anything Chinese, or to anything Indonesian for that matter. By 1967, when eastern vegetables and spices were more widely available on the Dutch market, often in special stores, the Chinese-Indonesian recipes given in Margriet began to resemble 'real' Chinese-Indonesian food more closely.32

The reception given to American dishes in the Netherlands has been very different. In the 1950s and early 1960s, there was a special feeling in the Netherlands about anything emanating from the United States or Canada. American products were assumed to be quality products and Americans were envied for their prosperity and admired and loved for the role they had played in liberating the country from the nazis. All of this was reflected in the attitude towards American food displayed in the culinary columns of Margriet and in the advertisements. Margriet devoted far more attention to American than to Chinese-Indonesian dishes. But unlike Chinese-Indonesian food, American food has not become part of the Dutch cuisine. There is no culinary or moral reason why anyone should try to copy American food, or avoid it for that matter. But in a country where American clothing, American popular music, American comic strips and American slang have been widely incorporated into daily life, it is surprising that there is not more American-style food.

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It is difficult to define American food. There are certain dishes that are characteristically American: hamburgers, chocolate cake, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are good examples. More than that, American food is characterized by not being bound by any particular rules. Whereas the Dutch always eat two bread meals and one hot meal each day and stop for coffee or tea in the middle of the morning, afternoon and evening, Americans eat and drink pretty much whatever they wish whenever it is convenient.

There are some American dishes that the Dutch find repugnant. The peanut butter and jelly sandwich is one. This particular combination of sweet and salty tastes seems strange to the Dutch palate. Dutch people who have tried American cakes when visiting the United States usually say they dislike them, claiming that they are too heavy. It is difficult to believe that this is the real reason, since nothing could be heavier that the popular Dutch boterkoek (a sort of shortbread) or olie-bollen (beignets with currants).

It is necessary to draw two distinctions: between American food and food made possible by a high degree of prosperity, like large servings of meat; and between American food and food made possible by modern technology, like fast food. The most popular fast food in the Netherlands is a serving of what Americans call 'French fries' and the English call 'chips', usually topped off with an un- American squirt of mayonnaise. This is an import neither from France nor from the United States, but from Belgium.

It would take up too much space to describe all of the dishes identified as American in the culinary columns of Margriet. A few characteristic examples will have to suffice. In September 1951, Margriet published an article entitled 'Tested According to American Standards', reporting the results of a baking contest held in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, complete with four of the

winning recipes. The recipes given were, in order, 'Orange Kiss-Me Cake' (flavoured with orange peel and raisins and with a glazed topping), 'Half-Time Spoon Rolls' (made with yeast), 'Tea-Time in Paris Cake' (with egg whites folded into the batter and no icing) and 'Old Virginia Cobbler' (made with apples). In December of the same year, there was a recipe for 'American Ground Beef Cookies', little discs of fried ground beef with cooked prunes on top, served hot as appetizers. In March 1956, Margriet described as 'typically American' an hors d'oeuvre tray with cocktail sausages, prunes, stuffed olives, radishes, onions and assorted types of fish. Most telling of all, in 1963 Margriet gave a recipe for an 'American hamburger': before being

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fried the ground beef was to be mixed with tomato paste, chopped onion, salt and pepper. 'You serve this meal - in the American way - with everything on the plates.' On top of each hamburger were to be pieces of leek, a handful of stuffed olives and some slices of tomato. No mention was made of a bun.33

Anyone familiar with American food will agree that, while these dishes could be served in America, there is not much about them that is really American. In fact, in the article on the baking contest, what is missing are such typically American foods as chocolate cake, or any cake with a thick icing. Any type of biscuit would have been far more characteristically American than yeast rolls. Although cobbler is an American dish, when made with apples it tastes much the same as Dutch apple pie. If the cobbler had been made with cherries, on the other hand, it would not have had a Dutch counterpart.

These recipes were in fact, chosen and even re-written for the Dutch housewife. In the introduction to the article on the baking contest, Margriet's culinary writer stated that she had avoided those winning recipes that did not 'really fit in with our Dutch taste'.34 There would have been no point in giving a recipe for brownies, for example, because readers would never have tried it. It would have been far too out of the ordinary. The recipe for hamburgers was obviously re-written. Needless to say, Americans do not usually garnish their hamburgers with olives nor do they mix ground beef with tomato paste. This last was surely a substitute for catsup which a typical Dutch family would not have in the refrigerator. Catsup was not advertised in Margriet until 1972. Leeks are, of course, practically unknown in America. Furthermore, a real American hamburger is always served on a bun. To do this, however, would be to break one of the key rules in Dutch cuisine, to keep the distinction between the hot meal with potatoes and the cold meal with bread. In short, the strange way American food was presented in Margriet was not accidental.

Margriet's aim in giving American recipes was not to tell readers how to prepare their food as Americans did. What Margriet was doing was to use the special allure associated with America and the American way of life to push ideas it favoured in general, including, above all, the idea of trying something new and different. The 'ground beef cookie', the hors d'oeuvre tray and the 'American hamburger' were not really American but were something different that the Dutch housewife could prepare for a festive occasion. Along the same lines, in May 1955, Margriet urged readers 'to learn from our American sisters' and serve a variety of vegetables at every meal. In

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September 1956, Margriet used a story about an American couple living in the Netherlands to push the idea of serving more dishes with melted cheese worked into them.35

By the early 1970s, America had lost much of its special attraction in the eyes of Europeans in general. Because of this and the post- industrial variety of products now available, it became possible to present American dishes that were more characteristically American. A good example was a recipe for an 'American salad with nuts', which was essentially a Waldorf salad. A new recipe for a hamburger did include a bun, although if you wanted a cheeseburger you had to mix grated cheese with the ground beef instead of putting a slice on top, evidently a solution to the problem of getting the cheese to melt. The article also suggested that you could season your hamburger with fresh chopped parsley, chives or paprika, pressed garlic, lemon juice or ginger.36 All of these suggestions make it clear that the essential purpose remained not to tell readers how to make American-style food, but how to make something new and different that could be served on a special occasion.

It seems clear that for social and political reasons both Chinese- Indonesian and American dishes had a certain appeal for the Dutch. In all likelihood, the reasons why the Chinese-Indonesian dishes were adopted and the American ones were not have to do with production and marketing. Immigrants from Indonesia were interested in establishing Chinese-Indonesian restaurants. Owners and their employees, who were often relatives, were willing to work long hours for relatively low pay or profits.37 Furthermore, people who had lived or fought in Indonesia formed a basic market for Chinese-Indonesian food, from which it could spread to the rest of the population. In the post-war period, North America was not a continent from which many people were emigrating. There was, therefore, no pool of

immigrants from America to establish American restaurants or to work in them, or to serve as an initial clientele.

The social and cultural scene in the twentieth century has undergone rapid change. Since 1945, change has been the normal state of affairs. An explanation needs to be sought, therefore, for continuity rather than change.

While considering continuity and change in eating habits, a distinction should be made between changes in the specific ingredients that make up a dish, changes in dishes that make up a meal and

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changes in types of meals that make up a meal system. A meal system is slow to change. The only significant change in the Dutch meal system since the war has been the change in the time of day at which the hot meal is served. As one might expect, there has been a greater change in the dishes that make up a meal, such as the limited introduction of Chinese-Indonesian dishes. On the other hand, there has been a great deal of change in the ingredients.

Before discussing the factors that have influenced changes in eating habits since the war, let us consider two factors which might have been thought important but in fact were not: the second world war and the entry of women into the labour market.

Dutch historians have written at length on the impact of the war and German occupation on Dutch society. In the immediate post- war period, there was a tendency to assume that this impact had been very great. More recently, however, historians have come to see the war less as a turning-point than as an event which speeded up the movement of Dutch society in the direction in which it had already been moving.38 This certainly was the case with respect to cooking. For the most part, as shortages gradually ended, people breathed a sigh of relief and went back to preparing food the way they had before the war. It took the generation born after 1945 voluntarily to adopt some of the things their parents had used only reluctantly during the war, such as herb teas, potatoes in their jackets, raw vegetables and less meat. In England, the situation was the same.39 During the war, boiling times for such vegetables as red cabbage, sauerkraut and beets recommended in The Hague Cookbook were reduced significantly, but as we have seen, this was a part of a trend that began before the war and continued after it.

It is easy to make the assumption that women's liberation must have an important impact on eating habits, but the evidence there is gives only very limited support to this hypothesis. The NIAM data divides its 1,600 households into those where the housewife does not work outside the home (81 per cent), those where the housewife works less than twenty hours a week outside the home (13 per cent) and those where the housewife works more than twenty hours a week outside the home (6 per cent). Let us call these groups A (non- working), B (working up to twenty hours a week) and C (working more than twenty hours). In group A, only 68 per cent always have their hot meal in the evening. In groups B and C, the figure is 84 per cent. Whether or not the housewife works outside the home also has some influence on how often the household eats at a Chinese-

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Indonesian restaurant. Of the households in groups A and B, only eight per cent do so at least once a month, whereas in group C the

proportion rises to twenty per cent. But this difference is also a reflection of the difference in disposable income, which is bound to be

higher in group C. With regard to the use of so-called convenience foods (in this case frozen dinners), there is no difference between the three groups.

Some other differences come to light when one looks at the factors women keep in mind when shopping. It is possible to conclude from the figures given in Table 4 that women who work full-time can afford to pay less attention to prices than other women. They have less time to devote to putting fresh products on the table. But they do not show a tendency to restrict their purchases to goods that are easy to

prepare. Even more interesting, it appears that women who work full-time actually pay more attention to the likes and dislikes of the members of their family than those who work part-time or not at all.40

(See Table 4.)

TABLE 4 Points Kept in Mind when Shopping, in per cent

Group A Group B Group C Total

If product is fresh: pays close attention 91 94 85 91 pays no attention 0 2 2 1

If husband and children like it: pays close attention 53 53 66 53 pays no attention 14 10 6 13

If it is easy to prepare: pays close attention 13 20 16 14

pays no attention 44 41 45 44 Price:

pays close attention 45 46 30 44

pays no attention 15 21 26 16

Most of the changes in eating habits that became institutionalized in the Netherlands between 1945 and 1975 are related to the increase in prosperity experienced during this time. This is a confirmation of

Engel's Law. In 1857, the German statistician, Ernst Engel, observed that the higher a household's income the smaller the proportion of it

spent on food. In 1950, the average Dutch employee spent 39 per cent of his income on food. In 1974, this was only 20 per cent. Engel's Law

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fits the English case as well, but it does not appear to apply in France.41

There is a great difference between income and taste, but the NIAM data indicates that tastes do differ from one social class to another. The 1,600 housewives of the NIAM survey were asked whether they agreed with the statement: 'The kind of food I like best is just regular Dutch food' (Geef mij maar een doodgewone hollandse pot). The most significant factor in their differing responses was social class.42 (See Table 5.)

TABLE 5 Answer to the Question: Do you Agree with the Statement 'The Kind of Food I Like the

Best is just Regular Dutch Food?', in per cent, by Social Class

Highest 42% Middle 45% Lowest 13%

Agree completely 22 41 51 Disagree completely 24 15 8

One can conclude from Table 5 that people who have the opportunity to try new, non-traditional foods will tend to develop a taste for them. One can probably say that as income goes up, people become more cosmopolitan, more eclectic in their tastes.

But it would be wrong to exaggerate the impact of income on eating habits. In fact, one of the characteristic features of eating habits in industrialized countries is the limited difference between what is eaten by high-income and low-income groups. The basic Dutch pattern of one hot meal and two bread meals a day is the same in all economic groups. The higher-income groups can afford better cuts of meat. They have developed a taste for more fresh fruit and vegetables. They tend to prefer a slice of meat or cheese on their bread rather than jam or some other sweet spread. They make more use of macrobiotic and health foods. But all of these are marginal differences. In a society in which there is no real poverty, there is no basic difference between classes regarding eating habits.

Increasing urbanization has been the most important factor influencing the change in the time of day at which the hot meal is consumed. Longer distances between home and work and between home and school are also significant. This point is illustrated in the NIAM study. At the beginning of this article, we noted that in 1980, an average of 71 per cent of all Dutch households always took their

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hot meal in the evening on weekdays and that on Saturdays and Sundays this proportion was 38 per cent and 47 per cent respectively.. But of households living in the three largest cities or their suburbs, where the distances between home, work and school were greater, 89 per cent of households always had their hot meal in the evening on weekdays. In small towns and rural areas, this was only 61 per cent. Another important factor was whether or not there were children living at home and how old they were. Only 66 per cent of households with no children always had their hot meal in the evening. Of households with children up to six years old, this was 75 per cent, while for those with children between six and twelve, it was 79 per cent and for those with children between thirteen and seventeen it was 86 per cent.43 The more older children there are in a family, the more likely it is that one or more of them will be unable to come home for a hot meal at midday. The fact that the percentage of households having their hot meal in the evening at the weekend is much smaller is a further indication that the distance between home, place of work and school is of importance.

In the history of a single family, there are decisive moments when important, even if temporary, changes take place in the dishes served and their ingredients. For example, when children become old enough to start making demands, the person responsible for the cooking will tend to listen.44 It is probable, however, that when the children leave home, the parents will go back to a more traditional pattern.

Dutch cuisine has undoubtedly been influenced by the influx, since the 1960s, of'guest workers' from Mediterranean and North African countries. These people have started up Italian, Yugoslav and Turkish restaurants, although on a modest scale compared to immigrants in England.45 More important, they and their families have stimulated demand for such vegetables as aubergines and peppers, thereby contributing to their availability. The influence of guest workers is basically confined to the large cities in the western part of the country where the vast majority of them live. In this sense it is a regional influence.

To a large extent, the twentieth century has seen the disappearance of regional cuisines. Regional differences were based at least in part on the varying technological levels of homes in different areas.46 These differences have tended to disappear. The role of regional cuisine in the Netherlands today is basically confined to the sentimental appreciation of 'old-fashioned' cooking. This interest in

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'old-fashioned' food has been prevalent in the Netherlands for so long that it is impossible to describe it as a fad. One can surmise that its source lies not just in a reaction to some of the regimented aspects of a post-industrial society, but also in a search for confirmation of identity. Appreciation of 'old-fashioned' cooking is not an example of continuity. It is a new, long-term development.

The explanation for the vast amount of real continuity in Dutch culinary history, even in the post-war period, must be sought partly in minimal nutritional needs, partly in the basic continuity of the economic system and partly also in the way a meal is defined. As Mary Douglas has pointed out, if 'dinner' is defined as consisting of meat, potatoes and vegetables, with an option of soup and dessert, one cannot simply skip the meat and potatoes. Even if the necessary nutritional elements are transferred to the soup and dessert, those at the table will feel that something is missing.47

From the middle of the 1970s, the uninterrupted increase in prosperity that had begun in 1945 came to an end. It is perhaps too early to attempt to delineate changes in eating habits in the Netherlands in the last ten years,48 but it does seem clear that as incomes fall, people do not revert to eating the way they did before incomes rose, mainly because it is impossible to reverse the technological development that has taken place. Technology has given birth both to labour-saving innovations and to a certain antipathy to these innovations.49 Culinary historians and anthropologists should follow this development with interest.

Notes

1. An excellent example of the use of statistical material for the second half of the eighteenth century is C. Vanderbroeke, Agriculture et Alimentation (Gent 1975). An important work making use of budgetary data is H.J. Teutenberg and Gunter Wiegelmann, Der Wandel der Nahrungsgewohnheiten unter dem Einfluss der Industriali- sierung (Gottingen 1972).

2. In Robert Forster and Orest Ranum (eds.), trans. Elborg Forster and Patricia M. Ranum, Food and Drink in History (Baltimore 1979), consisting of articles that originally appeared in the journal Annales, Economies, Societes, Civilisation, several authors make inspiring use of literary sources. See, for example, Jean Laclant on coffee in seventeenth-century Paris and Guy Thuillier on water supply in Nievre in the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. A fine example of the use of artistic material is the catalogue Brood (Rotterdam 1983), an account of the history of the production and consumption of bread in the Netherlands from the sixteenth to the twentieth century.

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3. Much of this research has been inspired by Gunter Wiegelmann's Alltags- und Festspeisen. Wandel und Gegenwartige Stellung (Marburg 1967), based on material collected between 1910 and 1939. Reasoning by analogy, Wiegelmann attempts to extrapolate back to the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

4. Mary Douglas 'Food as a System of Communication' in The Active Voice (London 1982), 83.

5. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Nutrition Information Office (Voorlichtingsbureau voor de Voeding) for allowing me to quote from this study.

6. Christien Brinkgreve and Michel Korzec, 'Margriet Weet Raad'. Gevoel, gedrag en moraal in Nederland, 1938-1978 (Utrecht 1978), 19.

7. Wina Born, Margriet's best-known culinary editor, is an important writer of

cookery books in her own right. But the central editorial staff does not give her a free hand in determining the content of her columns. Ms. Born told me in a telephone conversation in November 1982 that she used not to be allowed to put recipes with wine in her columns, but that she could put in as many with whipping cream as she wanted. Nowadays, she said, it is the other way around.

8. I would like to thank Margriet's publishers, De Geillustreerde Pers BV, for

allowing me to consult back issues in their archives. In researching this article, I read all the culinary articles published in Margriet in 1951, 1955, 1959, 1963, 1967, 1971 and 1975 as well as those in March and September of every other year. I also noted all the advertisements relating to food products in March and September of every year.

9. In this article I have made use of F.M. Stoll and W.H. de Groot, Het haagse kookboek (The Hague 1936, 1938, 1942, 1947, 1952, 1957, 1961, 1966, and 1971) and F.M. Stoll, W.H. de Groot and J.C. Heidenreich, Het nieuwe haagse kookboek (The Hague 1982). All the authors are former teachers at the domestic science school. Ms. Heidenreich emphasized to me that she had been opposed to the change in name. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Ms. Heidenreich, other (former) teachers and the domestic science school's librarian for helping me to consult old editions.

10. NIAM tables A.20.H, B.20.H and C.20.H. Social class was determined by a range of factors including income, education and age. Some 42 per cent of the households surveyed fell into the highest class. Some 13 per cent were included in the lowest.

11. There is one significant exception to this pattern: farmers, market-gardeners and their employees, because of the heavy labour they do, often have an additional meal each day. This can be a hot meal or a bread meal. See B. Woonink, J.P. Burema and Th.F.S.M. van Schaik, 'Een enquete naar de avondmaaltijd ten plattelande', Voeding, 12 (1951), 367-79.

12. NIAM tables A.12 and B.12. 13. A.P. den Hartog, Voeding als maatschappelijk verschijnsel (Utrecht 1982), 121. 14. Renee Kistemaker and Carry van Lakerveld (eds.), Brood, aardappels en patat.

Eeuwen eten in Amsterdam (Amsterdam 1983), 53-54. 15. This is certainly a cause for concern, even though it would be unwise to

underestimate the extent of adulteration of food in the nineteenth century. On this see John Burnett, Plenty and Want. A social history of diet in England from 1815 to the present day (London rev. ed. 1979).

16. Anneke van Otterloo, 'De herleving van de beweging voor natuurlijk en gezond voedsel', Sociologisch Tijdschrift (December 1983), 516. This article does not neglect to

point out that the natural foods movement started around the turn of the century. 17. G.J.P.M. de Bekker, De betekenis van brood in de voeding en defactoren die op

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hetbroodverbrik van invloed zijn (Dissertation: Landbouw Hogeschool Wageningen 1978).

18. Margriet, 25 May 1975, 68. 19. Margriet, 18 July 1959,44; 14 May 1959,69; 3 June 1967,104; and 10 June 1967,

104. 20. Margriet, 10 February 1951, 51; 2 October 1971, 156; 23 March 1946, 8; 23-29

September 1972, 128-30. 21. Margriet, 16 March 1963, 84; Brinkgreve and Korzec, op.cit., 93-94. 22. Margriet, 24 March 1956, 46; 23-29 October 1971, 102. 23. Margriet, 9 September 1967, 63. 24. See Catherine Salzman, 'Food in the Netherlands during World War II', Petits

Propos Culinaires, 12 (1982), 14-18. 25. F.M. Stoll and W.H. de Groot, Het haagse kookboek (The Hague 1938), 178.

For table see note 9. 26. Irma S. Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker, The Joy of Cooking

(Indianapolis 1943 and 1972). The Joy of Cooking is another example of a successful cookbook that has been continuously revised.

27. This possibility was suggested to me by the analysis of internal factors in culinary change in Jozien Jobse-van Putten 'Veranderingen in de huishoudelijke vleesconservering in de afgelopen eeuw', Volkskundig Bulletin, 10, 1 (May 1984), 1-49.

28. Brinkgreve and Korzec, op. cit., 127. 29. This development has never been fully studied and this article does not pretend

to fill the gap. Some aspects of it are covered in Rudie Kagie, 'Eten bij de Chinees', Vrij Nederland (10 September 1983), supplement. Kagie fails, however, to distinguish clearly between Chinese and Chinese-Indonesian food. Some information on the early period can be found in F. van Heek, 'Chineesche immigranten in Nederland' in F. Bovenkerk and L. Brunt (eds.), De rafelrand van Amsterdam; Jordaners, pinda- Chinezen, ateliermeisjes en venters in de jaren dertig (Amsterdam 1977), 84-116. Van Heek's study was originally published in 1936 and therefore does not cover post-war developments.

30. Professor B.H. Slicher van Bath told me that at an ethnic fair he visited in Chicago in the 1960s, where each immigrant group had a stand with the national cuisine of their country of origin, Dutch cuisine was represented by the loempiah.

31. NIAM tables A.20.A and B.20.B. 32. Margriet, 22 March 1958, 57; 18 November 1967, 120. 33. Margriet, 29 September 1951, 32-33; 1 December 1951,41; 24 March 1956, 48;

17 August 1963, 51. 34. Margriet, 29 September 1951, 32-33. 35. Margriet, 21 May 1955, 44; 29 September 1956, 93. 36. Margriet, 6-12 November 1971, 168. 37. See Kagie, op. cit. The same phenomenon explains the growth of Italian,

Yugoslav and Turkish restaurants in the 1960s and 1970s. 38. See H.W. von der Dunk, 'Het Fascisme - een tussenbalans', Internationale

Spectator (January 1975), 32-50. 39. See Christopher Driver, The British at Table (London 1983), especially 16-57.

This is a stimulating study which suggests many points of comparison with the Dutch experience.

40. NIAM tables B.12 and C.20.A; 'Menucensus 1980: Buitenshuis, werkende vrouw neemt aparte plaats in', Voedings Informatie, 8-9, 3 (1980), 27-28.

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41. den Hartog, op.cit., 61; Driver, op.cit., 66; Theodore Zeldin, France, 1848-1945 (London 1977), vol. I, 753.

42. NIAM table A.25.C. See also note 10. 43. NIAM tables A.12 and B.12. 44. NIAM table A. 17. 45. This is surely due to the fact that the fiction has been maintained that these

'guest workers' are staying only temporarily. 46. See Jobse-van Putten, op. cit. Important determinants of regional differences in

the Netherlands included whether the cooking in a given region was done on an open range or on a stove and the form of the chimney. This implies that many regional differences were very short-lived.

47. Mary Douglas, 'Deciphering a Meal' in Implicit Meanings (London 1975), 249-75.

48. The Foundation for Scientific Research of Consumer Issues (Stichting Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Konsumenten Aangelegenheden or SWOKA) is carrying out research on this subject.

49. See Driver, op. cit., x: 'The food history of our own time presents the middle class rediscovering, and the working class escaping the mingled pleasure and enslavement of the physical world'.

Catherine Salzman is an MBA student at the

Rotterdam School of Management and is the author of several articles.

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Documents

Culinary History of the Netherlands