Dutch Cuisine - Foods

Foods

Dutch agriculture roughly consists of five sectors: tillage-based, greenhouse-based, and fruit agriculture, animal husbandry and fishery.

• Tillage-based crops include potatoes, kale, beetroot, green beans, carrots, celeriac, onions, all kind of cabbages, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, endive, spinach, Belgian endive, asparagus and lettuce. Recently some initiatives have been started to encourage interest in such "forgotten" vegetables as common purslane, medlars, parsnips, and black salsify

• Greenhouses are used to produce tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, and sweet peppers

• Fruits include apples, pears, cherries, berries, and plums

• The Dutch keep cows both for milk and for their meat, chickens for their eggs and for meat, pigs for their meat and sheep for their wool and meat. Goat are increasingly kept for cheese production. Traditionally horse meat was a common dish (steak and sausage) but is less popular today.

• The fishery sector lands cod, herring, plaice, sole, mackerel, eels, tuna, salmon, trout, oysters, mussels, shrimp, and sardines. The Dutch are famous for their smoked eel and soused herring, which is eaten raw.