As sweet as a child's tooth
It's almost that time again... The time of exploding bellies, drunk family members and the never-ending pile of dishes at the end of the evening, can't wait! But since we're a newsletter located in the Netherlands we couldn't skip the festivity that will take place tomorrow in our country.
The festive has been in the international news quite a bit due to racism in the last years. Luckily, we don't see a difference in the tone of your skin. We care about the stories, myths, and other relevant histories of certain foods, it doesn't matter to us if the foods or ingredients came from Black, White, Asian or Latin hands. What matters is that the food is here and for everybody to enjoy... With that stated, let's move on.
Red Line
The Dutch festivity that will take place tomorrow is called 'Sinterklaas'. The festive is centered around 'pakjesavond', an evening where young children receive tons of presents. The timing of this week's publication and festivity is perfect, that's why we decided to a Sinterklaas special. There are plenty of foods that appear on the supermarket shelves during Sinterklaas, foods that are normally not there. This week we will put a few of these foods in our shopping cart and uncover the history of it. But before checking out these foods we have to address the history of Sinterklaas itself. Who is this mysterious man from Spain and how did it become such a big thing in the Netherlands?
Back to school
SINT-er-KLAAS, with a bit of imagination you are already able to see it. The name Sinterklaas is based on Nicholas of Myra, who later earned the name Saint Nicholas or Nicholas the Wonderworker. Nicholas of Myra was born around 280 AC in Myra, the then-known capital of Lycia in Turkey. Turkey was then part of the Roman Empire. This all is an assumption because there are zero historical records found about the existence of this man.
The information we know about him comes from stories written down by Christian disciples in the 6th century. So that means that ALL the information between the 280 AC and 6th century must have been passed down orally and we all know what happens with such information...
Miracle or just stubborn?
So it isn't surprising at all that Nicholas of Myra plays key roles in numerous Christian tales and legends. For example, it was said that when he was a baby he refused to drink from his mother's breast on Wednesday and Friday because these were fast days. Riiiiight... From the moment Nicholas was born, it was clear that he would spend the rest of his life under the roof of a Christian institution.
Because of his devotion and strong beliefs in Christianity Nicholas gained a kind of special power, a power to full fill exceptional wonders. He would appear in dreams of Roman emperors to prevent certain executions, resurrect three children, and was able to multiply sacks of wheat to prevent starvation. In nearly every story in which Nicholas plays a key role, children stand central. In short, Nicholas of Myra is genuinely a very nice guy with special powers and a soft spot for children.
Europe loves Nicholas
After the death of Nicholas on the 6th of December 342, Nicholas's stories gained a lot of popularity in Europe. Some day in the 13th century it was established that 6 December would be Saint Nicholas day. From that point on, European countries started to give their own swings to Saint Nicholas day. The Dutch owe the 'Sinterklaas' they know of to the popular book of Jan Schenkman that made its first appearance in 1850: 'St. Nicholaas en zijn knecht'. The stories and images in this book are so well detailed and described that the Dutch just had to copy and paste it. Also, the Dutch didn't really like the idea of celebrating something for children on the day of Nicholas's death. So they moved it to the 5th of December.
Uhm...Food?
Because it's a children's festive there are a lot of sweets involved. Sweets that are specifically produced for Sinterklaas. We will discuss the following ones:
Pepernoot, gingernut
Kruidnoot, spicenut
Chocolademunt, Chocolate coin
The Nuts
Before we start uncovering the history of the 'pepernoot' and 'kruidnoot' it is important to know the difference, some of the Dutchies don't even know the difference.
Pepernoot: 'Pepernoten' are made from rye flour with honey and anise and have a soft irregular shape. These soft sweets are not the most popular because they can taste a bit dry.
Kruidnoot: 'Kruidnoten' are crispy semicircular brittle biscuits with gingerbread spices. This 'kruidnoot' is by far the most popular one of the two variants. Probably because they are more fun to throw at children.
According to 'De Dikke Van Dale', which is the equivalent of the Oxford dictionary the word 'kruidnoot' is a synonym for 'pepernoot'. The Dutch bakers disagree, they say that the difference between the nuts is too big to be classified as the same. Of course, we agree with the bakers.
Not so nutty
The first 'pepernoot' mention was in a book from around 1640 that was about the bakers guild of Groningen. Around the 1700s the 'pepernoot' became an everyday snack, they were easy to take with you and very nutritious because of the rye. But it didn't come cheap either, honey and anise were expensive ingredients at that time so not everyone could afford it.
The reason why the guild of bakers called it 'pepernoot', which includes the word 'pepper', is still unknown. Historians assume that the bakers used the word pepper because it was a definition for "a bundle of spices". Personally, I find this weird because there is not one type of spice mentioned in the recipe written down by these same bakers. My assumption is that the people called it 'pepernoot' because it was an expensive product, just like the spice at that time.
The nutcracker
When the festive Sinterklaas became more popular in the Netherlands a problem emerged. The generous character of Saint Nicholas is symbolized in stories as the sprinkling of money to poor people and children. The generosity of Sint Nicholas was what made him famous, if people were going to create a festive for him they couldn't skip this part. After long consults, they decided it would be perfect if they would sprinkle the 'pepernoten'. But they were too expensive and too soft to sprinkle on the street, it would absorb dirt and fluids.
After years of experimenting and experimenting, they finally found it: EUREKA! A tiny cookie with a solid and protective coat which made sure that the cookie could stay on the floor for a while without getting really dirty. Maybe the 5-second rule also arose from this, who knows...
That's nuts!
The 'kruidnoot' was born. A tiny round cookie with NINE SPICES instead of ZERO and still it was cheaper than the 'pepernoot'. How? As I said, it took years for them to develop the 'kruidnoot'. During the process, the Dutch created the first company with shares, the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie), and suddenly the spices were within easier reach. The Netherlands went through what they call 'the Golden Age' and the country got rich, really rich. They created a solid trading network throughout the whole world with the VOC and WIC (West-Indische Compagnie), other countries followed and the prices of herbs and spices dropped.
A recipe didn't arrive until the 18th century. When Gerrit van den Brenk had the honor of writing the first official "pepernoten" recipe in 1753.
Chocolademunt
The golden coin with a chocolate filling is based on one of the stories about Nicholas. The story is called the Charity of Sint Nicholas and it goes as follows::
"A poor man had three beautiful daughters, all daughters were the same age. The father had to let their daughters go because they were becoming old enough to marry a man. In those days it was normal to offer your daughters hand with a dowry. The bigger the dowry, the better the husband. The problem was that the poor man didn't have enough money for a dowry, let alone three! Because of the poverty of the father, the daughters risked their lives as a slave. With a worrying mind, he went to sleep with his 3 daughters.
Holy Visit
In the middle of the night the father woke up because of a sound, the roof was creaking. 'No no no, not a leak, please God, my life is already hard', the poor man said. But wait... he heard footsteps on the roof. Somebody was on the roof! Was it God? Did he really hear his prayers?
I'm sure the poor man must have thought it was God. Of course, it was not God. It was Nicholas of Myra. The poor man looked up to the fireplace where the shoes of his daughters were standing, the shoes were placed there to dry up from the days working in the wet soil. Three shoes were filled with gold coins in a brown burlap bag and were surrounded by mandarins. Hence the golden coins filled with chocolate. But this story also explains why children place their shoes in front of the fireplace each night before 'pakjesavond', they hope to wake up to a shoe filled with chocolate coins.
Phew! As you probably have noticed this week's story is a lot longer than normal. However, this is only the tip of the 'Sinterklaas' iceberg. We also could've talked about chocolate letters, mandarins, gingerbread, meringues or 'marsepijn'. Maybe next year...
Groetjes,
Piet