Cookery books from this period are aimed at the upper class. ĭuring the 15th century haute cuisine began to emerge, largely limited to the aristocracy. Orchards for pears and apples connected to castles were later used for export and set off a Dutch horticulture tradition that remains to this day. The famous tourist attraction and flower park Keukenhof (literally kitchen garden) is an example of a former 15th-century hunting ground and herbs garden for Jacqueline, Countess of Hainaut's castle kitchen. Gardening was initially practiced by monasteries, but castles and country houses began also to develop gardens with herbs and vegetables and hunting grounds. Herring is still very important to the Dutch who celebrate Vlaggetjesdag (Flag Day) each spring, as a tradition that dates back to the 14th century when fishermen went out to sea in their small boats to capture the annual catch ( Hollandse Nieuwe), and to preserve and export their catch abroad. They began to build ships and eventually moved from trading in herring to colonizing and the Dutch Lowlands (the Netherlands as a country did not exist until 1581), ultimately leading to the Dutch becoming a seafaring power. The invention created an export industry for salt herring ( Dutch: maatjesharing) that was monopolized by the Dutch. The process of gibbing was invented by Willem Beukelszoon, a 14th-century Zealand fisherman. The sea and the rivers provided an abundance of fish.

Dutch butter and cheese became famous products at an early stage and continued to be so for centuries. Beer was in medieval times the common drink as water was of poor quality, and milk-coming from the low-lying grasslands of Holland and Friesland-was mainly used for the production of butter and cheese. Gruit was replaced with hop, a tradition introduced from the German city of Bremen, and this started off a beer culture and the Low Counties as a major exporter of beer. īeer flavoured with gruit was produced until the 14th century at the monasteries. The content changed throughout the seasons. Half-liquid pottage consisted of milk, beer, water, root vegetable and peas or grain, sometimes enriched with a piece of meat. In the consumption of pottage, the Low Countries were not very different from other Western European countries during the Middle Ages.

Little evidence is available about food and drink in the late medieval Low Countries. Most international cuisines are represented in the major cities and there is a renewed interest in pleasing tastes. Initially influenced by the eating culture of its colonies (particularly the Dutch East Indies), and later by globalization, it became cosmopolitan. During the 20th century, Dutch cuisine and diet changed significantly.

ĭue to the availability of water and flat grass land, The Dutch diet contains many dairy products, such as cheese, and is relatively high in carbohydrates and fat. Due to this focus on efficiency, the Dutch obtained not only a reputation that they were feeding the world, but also that their cuisine had a bland taste. Also, Dutch food production focussed increasingly on efficiency, which became so successful, that despite its size, the small country became the world's second largest exporter of agricultural products by value behind the United States. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Dutch food became designed to be economical and filling rather than pleasing, which was the result of the rise of housekeeping schools, where girls learned to cook in such manner. And the development of the Dutch process chocolate in 1828, which was instrumental in the transformation of chocolate to its solid form (which was up till then drunk as a liquid), started the modern era of chocolate. In the 17th and 18th century, Dutch cuisine played a pivotal role in the spread of coffee in the world as the Netherlands pioneered in establishing gardens for coffee cultivation in their colonies and popularising the concept of coffeehouses for the masses. The Burgundian-Habsburg court enriched the cuisine of the Dutch elite in the 15th and 16th century, so did the colonial spice trade in the 17th century. The country's cuisine is shaped by its location in the fertile North Sea river delta of the European Plain, giving rise to fishing, farming (for crops, dairy and meat) and overseas trade. Dutch cuisine ( Dutch: Nederlandse keuken) is formed from the cooking traditions and practices of the Netherlands.

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