Food Culture in Belgium Belgium. Cartography by Bookcomp, Inc. Food Culture in Belgium PETER SCHOLLIERS Food Culture around the World Ken Albala, Series Editor GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Scholliers, Peter. Food culture in Belgium / Peter Scholliers. p. cm. — (Food culture around the world, ISSN 1545–2638) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978–0–313–34490–9 (alk. paper) 1. Cookery, Belgian. 2. Food habits—Belgium. I. Title. TX723.5.B4S36 2009 394.1'209493—dc22 2008031523 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2009 by Peter Scholliers All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2008031523 ISBN: 978–0–313–34490–9 ISSN: 1545–2638 First published in 2009 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984). 10987654321 Every reasonable effort has been made to trace the owners of copyrighted materials in this book, but in some instances this has proven impossible. The author and publisher will be glad to receive information leading to more complete acknowledgments in subsequent printings of the book and in the meantime extend their apologies for any omissions. The publisher has done its best to make sure the instructions and/or recipes in this book are correct. However, users should apply judgment and experience when preparing reci- pes, especially parents and teachers working with young people. The publisher accepts no responsibility for the outcome of any recipe included in this volume. Contents Series Foreword by Ken Albala vii Preface ix Introduction xi Timeline xv 1. Historical Overview 1 2. Major Foods and Ingredients 31 3. Cooking 67 4. Typical Meals 99 5. Eating Out 127 6. Special Occasions 157 7. Diet and Health 185 Glossary 207 Resource Guide 211 Selected Bibliography 217 Index 227 This page intentionally left blank Series Foreword The appearance of the Food Culture around the World series marks a de- finitive stage in the maturation of Food Studies as a discipline to reach a wider audience of students, general readers, and foodies alike. In compre- hensive interdisciplinary reference volumes, each on the food culture of a country or region for which information is most in demand, a remarkable team of experts from around the world offers a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of food in shaping human culture for a whole new generation. I am honored to have been associated with this project as series editor. Each volume follows a series format, with a chronology of food-related dates and narrative chapters titled Introduction, Historical Overview, Major Foods and Ingredients, Cooking, Typical Meals, Eating Out, Spe- cial Occasions, and Diet and Health (in special cases, these topics are covered by region). Each also includes a glossary, bibliography, resource guide, and illustrations. Finding or growing food has of course been the major preoccupation of our species throughout history, but how various peoples around the world learn to exploit their natural resources, come to esteem or shun specific foods and develop unique cuisines reveals much more about what it is to be human. There is perhaps no better way to understand a culture, its values, preoccupations and fears, than by examining its attitudes toward food. Food provides the daily sustenance around which families and com- munities bond. It provides the material basis for rituals through which viii Series Foreword people celebrate the passage of life stages and their connection to divin- ity. Food preferences also serve to separate individuals and groups from each other, and as one of the most powerful factors in the construction of identity, we physically, emotionally and spiritually become what we eat. By studying the foodways of people different from ourselves we also grow to understand and tolerate the rich diversity of practices around the world. What seems strange or frightening among other people becomes perfectly rational when set in context. It is my hope that readers will gain from these volumes not only an aesthetic appreciation for the glo- ries of the many culinary traditions described, but also ultimately a more profound respect for the peoples who devised them. Whether it is eating New Year’s dumplings in China, folding tamales with friends in Mexico or going out to a famous Michelin-starred restaurant in France, understand- ing these food traditions helps us to understand the people themselves. As globalization proceeds apace in the twenty-first century is it also more important than ever to preserve unique local and regional traditions. In many cases these books describe ways of eating that have already begun to disappear or have been seriously transformed by modernity. To know how and why these losses occur today also enables us to decide what tradi- tions, whether from our own heritage or that of others, we wish to keep alive. These books are thus not only about the food and culture of peoples around the world, but also about ourselves and who we hope to be. Ken Albala University of the Pacifi c Preface Sometime during the 1980s, I became engaged in the quantitative his- toriography of food. I wished to learn about the money people spent on food between 1850 and 1950, the calories they consumed in 1890 and 1910, and the prices they paid for pork, butter, or coffee between 1950 and 1975. This would help me to assess the development of the standard of living of the masses (then, as now, a crucial research theme). Some- time during the 1990s, I started to gain interest in cultural aspects of eat- ing and drinking, realizing that food is much more than a matter of prices and calories. I wanted to learn about the significance of foodstuffs and eat- ing habits, which led me to study the role of cuisine in identity forma- tion, the importance of eating chocolate, or the names of restaurants and dishes. This is one way, not necessarily a better way of doing historical research. I think it is more comprehensive and, therefore, more fulfilling. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Taking this route was possible through scientific, mostly cordial but sometimes conflicting, contacts with many people during colloquia, workshops, lectures, teaching, and dining occasions. Also, this book was made possible through the reading of many works on the sociology and ethnology of food, which are quite far from the average social and economic historian’s purview. In the Selected Bibliography at the end of this book I refer, and gladly pay tribute, to the work of these diverse [...]... and upper Belgium Since long ago these regions have been relentlessly modified by draining and cultivating land; removing and planting woods; building towns, roads, and 2 Food Culture in Belgium bridges; constructing ports; changing waterways’ beds; and building workshops and factories Lower Belgium is flat (under 350 feet above sea level), with 40 miles of coast and sandy beaches Right behind the beaches... shopping habits, the use of ingredients, food at weddings, school and company cafeterias, cooking clubs, male and female chefs, Sunday dinners, family spending on food items, culinary differences between Flemings and Walloons, and many other issues related to ordinary and special food I compare information with that from other countries As a historian I try to interpret today’s foodways by looking at... cookbook was Ouverture de cuisine (Opening the kitchen; Liège, 1604), published by Lancelot de Casteau, the chef “to three princes,” who likewise used and adapted Scappi’s recipes, thus diffusing them into the French-speaking parts of the Low Countries Interest in food materialized not only in printed cookbooks but also in the practice of eating and drinking lavishly According to some seventeenth-century... the Low Countries) in the seventeenth century.26 The author’s introduction is telling: in a witty way he opposes the many moralistic treatises against copious food consumption by stressing moderate but tasteful eating and drinking He translated much of Bartolomeo Scappi’s Opera dell’ arte del cucinare (1570), a then almost-classic Renaissance cookbook, but selected 14 Food Culture in Belgium recipes and... in fish consumption, like in the Meuse basin Farmers’ houses were large and often consisted of three parts: one for people, a second for keeping animals, and a third for storing food and tools Most people combined foraging, fishing, and agriculture with some hunting and, gradually, trading Miners from Spiennes, for example, seem not to have produced their own food and most likely traded goods for food. .. eaten.4 In the village of Spiennes (near Mons) an extensive flint mine operated between 4000 and 750 b.c., producing spearheads, needles, fishhooks, and other tools for hunting, fishing, and laboring Migrants, who probably traveled via the rivers running through the continent, such as the Danube and Rhine rivers, gradually introduced agriculture into western Europe Domesticated animals and farming appeared... Waerebeek and Maria Robbins, Everybody Eats Well in Belgium Cookbook (New York: Workman, 1996) Timeline c 20,000 B.C Humans appear for the first time in what now is Belgium 4000 B.C Flint mine is in operation in Spiennes (near Mons) 2600 B.C First domesticated animals and farming are introduced 2000 B.C Trade with the British Isles and Southern Europe begins 250 B.C Celts invade this part of Europe... raising animals (yielding more 10 Food Culture in Belgium meat, milk, dairy products, wool, and leather) More food meant more people and trade, which led to more wealth and power for some A complex relationship between lords and towns came into being, with towns obtaining rights and lords receiving financial support Small, almostforgotten places revived, and other bigger ones developed further, resulting... divides the Frankish kingdom into three parts, with France and Flanders in the xvi Timeline western empire, some regions of the Low Countries, Burgundy, and Northern Italy in the middle empire, and Germany in the eastern empire c 1000 Agriculture in Flanders is intensified by applying fertilizer and rotating crops instead of leaving parts of the land fallow 1000–1300 Population increases markedly, and... Past and Present,” in Peter Scholliers, ed., Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eating and Drinking in Europe since the Middle Ages (New York: Berg, 2001), 3–22 2 In his Julie, ou la Nouvelle Héloïse (1761) the French philosopher JeanJacques Rousseau already suggested that “one may find an indication of the nature of people in the food they prefer” (cited in J M Bourre, La diététique du cerveau [Paris: . Food Culture in Belgium Belgium. Cartography by Bookcomp, Inc. Food Culture in Belgium PETER SCHOLLIERS Food Culture around the World. Sentiments of Belonging in Past and Present,” in Peter Scholliers, ed., Food, Drink and Identity: Cooking, Eat- ing and Drinking in Europe since the Middle