• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Coquinaria

Culinaire geschiedenis, onderzoek en praktijk

  • Welcome
    • Introduction
    • Contact
    • Coquinaria on Instagram
    • Updates – Most recent
    • RSS Feed
    • Privacy Policy
  • Recipes
    • Historical recipes – Sources
    • Recipes – Origin
    • Recipes – Menu
    • Dutch recipes
    • Ingredients
  • Subjects
    • Dutch recipes
    • Stock, the kitchen spirit
    • Dough – The basics
    • Italian Pasta
    • Asian noodles
    • Knives, use and care
    • Making cheese
    • Eggs are everywhere!
    • Dutch Santa Claus
    • Eggs for Easter
    • The Coquinaria Cats
  • Editions of cookery books
    • Edelike spijse
    • Convolute KANTL Gent 15
      • KANTL Gent 15 vol.1
      • KANTL Gent 15 vol.2
  • Winter Fare
  • Dutch

A visit to the butcher

Butcher and farmer deliberatingRecently I joined Carolina Verhoeven, who until 2010 owned the Culinary Historical Museum in Appelscha (in the North of The Netherlands) and is now head of the Culinary Heritage Centre in a visit to the biological butcher shop of Bernard Roosendaal in Drachtstercompagnie. Slagerij Roosendaal was a biological/organic butcher’s. They also had live stock, and functioned as a care farm.

We watched how a lamb and half a pig were cut up, and how bloedworst (black pudding), zure zult en hoofdkaas (brawn or head cheese) and balkenbrij (scrapple) are made. So here is the story, with pictures. On the right you see the butcher in discussion with a farmer regarding the storage of grain for cattle in winter.
Recipes for making Mortadella and Lucanian sausages.

Cattle

Cows, pigs and cheese-storage

There’s no way around it: a butcher works with meat, and that comes from animals. Lots of people have no problem eating meat, as long as they can’t recognize that it’s from an animal: meatballs, but not a whole chicken, fish fingers, but no blue trout. I advise those people to click away from this page.
Me, I also have a difficult time when I realize that those cuddly little lambs, bright pigs and doey eyed calfs will end up served on a plate. But when you limit your carnivorous urges to meat that you know comes from animals that have had a relatively good live, and compensate the extra cost by eating vegetarian meals a couple of times a week, your conscience might be more at ease.

The cattle and pigs that butcher Roosendaal processes are all from biological/organic farms. He also keeps his own pigs, from an old, slow growing breed that has been bred back from near extinction, the Bentheimer Bunte (German site). This pig breed originates from the County of Bentheim, just over the Dutch border in Germany. The oldest mention of the Bentheimer Bunte is from the middle of the nineteenth century.

The farmer we visited owned both milking cows and cattle for meat, from various breeds that I do not remember. Pigs and cattle were in the stables (it was early February), but as soon as the weather allows it, they will go outside again. The farmer’s wife makes cheese (type Gouda cheese), using a vegetarian rennet. We tasted several of the cheeses, some with herbs, and one so old the salt cristals crunched between your teeth. Delicious.

The butcher shop

  • Smoke house
    The smoke house
  • Butcher's assistant
    A girl from the care farm makes slavinken, meatballs wrapped in bacon
  • Butcher's knives
    Butcher's knives are sharpened very often
  • Butcher at work
    Butcher Bernard deboning a lamb
Bernard Roosendaal comes from a family of butchers, his father, grandfather and greatgrandfather were all butchers. He loves curing meat and making sausages: boning meat is a skill, but making cured meat and sausages is an art. Bernard’s father has officially stopped working, but he is still a regular presence at the butcher’s. The children that visit the care farm all lovingly call him Opa (grandpa). Old mr Roosendaal showed us how to make black pudding, brawn/head cheese and scrapple.

Some traditional preparations

Below are some short descriptions of Dutch traditional food as blood sausages, brawn and scrapple. These are all eaten with bread for lunch, but blood sausages and scrapple can also be baked.

Blood sausages or black pudding the Dutch way

I’m not a vampire, but one can wake me in the middle of the night for a slice of black pudding! Ancient cookbooks often have recipes for sausages and puddings based on pig’s blood. In times when pig were kept for home-slaughter (or let a travelling butcher do the work), nothing of the pig was wasted, and that included the blood. Although the blood of sheep or cows can also be used, pig’s blood is the best.
One picture is missing: of a slice of the black pudding. I had some, but they were eaten before I thought of the camera.

Brawn and vinegared brawn

Here are some pictures of making zure zult and hoofdkaas. It is difficult to find exact equivalences in English. Brawn (BrE) or head cheese (AmE) come close (actually, hoofdkaas literally means ‘head cheese’). But zure zult and hoofdkaas are not the same. The difference is in the spices that are used, and the vinegar that is used for zure zult, but not for hoofdkaas. However, the same meat is used for both: boiled pig´s heads, or heads of calf or cow. Let’s call zure zult ‘vinegared head cheese’ or ‘vinegared brawn’. After picking the meat from the boiled heads to remove gristle and such, and spicing it, the meat mixed with some of the stock is poured in moulds. It thickens during cooling.

Meat of a pig’s head is generally not considered as food fit for humans in the Netherlands. In France you can buy delicious demi salé pig snout and pig ears, but not in my country. I don’t know how it is in other countries. However, if one finds a butcher who slaughters his own pigs, or who is willing to order something for you, ask for the fat meat from the pork’s jaw. It is very tasteful. In the medieval Dutch manuscript KANTL Gent 15 is a delicious recipe with this head meat: sucarij.

Scrapple

  • Scrapple - 1
    Stock and liver are brought to a boil
  • Scrapple - 2
    Buckwheat and spices are added
  • Scrapple - 3
    Stirring until the scrapple has thickened
Balkenbrij is not exactly the same as American scrapple, but it comes close. Stock from boiled pig’s heads is used, with ground liver and buckwheat meal, and ground aniseed or other sweet spices (here, only aniseed was used). This is boiled until it is a thick mass. A kind of liver sausage without sausage casing.

Bibliography

The editions below were used by me. Links refer to available editions.

  • Drs J.W. Baretta, dr E.J. Tobi, J.Wesseling (red.), Moderne beenhouwerij en charcuterie in woord en beeld, (‘Modern butchery and charcutery’) N.V. Centraal Boekhuis, Antwerpen,1965 (2nd, revised edition).

My day at the butcher’s
The story of my visit to a biological/organical butcher, with pictures how to prepare black sausage, brawn and scrapple
© Author Christianne Muusers

Gepubliceerd op 8 March 2009Laatste wijziging 23 February 2020

Primary Sidebar

The latest historical recipe

The latest historical recipe

Cherry custard

The latest modern recipe

The latest modern recipe

Nostalgic summer salad

Het excellente kookboek

ISBN 9789056156497, € 29,95

If you appreciate Coquinaria …

Coquinaria is not a commercial website, all information and recipes are free. If you appreciate this, it would be great if you show this by making a small donation!

KokenKoken

Categorieën

  • Technique (50)
  • PERIOD (215)
    • Prehistory (1)
    • Roman (14)
    • Middle Ages (56)
    • 16th century (30)
    • 17th century (26)
    • 18th century (24)
    • 19th century (33)
    • 20th century (14)
    • Traditional (32)
    • Modern (22)
  • ORIGIN (198)
    • Canada (1)
    • Belgium (9)
    • Arabian (7)
    • China (6)
    • England (27)
    • France (36)
    • Germany (10)
    • Indonesia (1)
    • Italy (31)
    • Japan (4)
    • Mauritius (2)
    • Netherlands (72)
    • Russia (5)
    • Spain (2)
    • Sweden (1)
    • United States (4)
  • MENU (214)
    • Lucheon dish (21)
    • Breakfast or brunch (1)
    • Snack (21)
    • Savoury pastry (14)
    • Pasta (11)
    • First course (48)
    • Soup (35)
    • Main dish (39)
    • Side dish (47)
    • Casserole (7)
    • Dessert (24)
    • Sweet pastry (28)
    • Beverage (10)
    • Condiment (10)
  • DIET (157)
    • With meat (70)
    • Meat nor fish (vegetarian) (65)
    • With fish (pescetarian) (36)

Onderwerpen

almond amandelen anchovy anise apple apricot asparagus aubergine barbecue barley basil bayleaf beef beer beet greens beets belgian endives bell pepper blackberries bread broad beans broccoli buckwheat bulb butter buttermilk cabbage capers carrot casserole celeriac celery cheese chestnut chicken chilli pepper chives chopped meat christmas cilantro cinnamon cloves cocoa cod coffee coriander cranberry crayfish cream cucumber cumin currants curry date deep-frying dill dough easter egg eggplant endives fennel fish flour fruit game garden peas garlic gedroogde pruim ginger goose gooseberry grape groats heat wave herring honey horseradish ice cream kale kastanje knoflook lamb meat lamsvlees lard leek lemon lemongrass lent lettuce lime lobster lovage mackerel mallard marrow mayonnaise medlar meloen milk mint mushrooms mussels mustard onion orange orange flower water parsley parsnip partridge pasta peacock pear peas pike pineapple pistacchio plums pomegranate pork potato prune pudding purslane quail quince rabbit raisin raisins red cabbage red wine rhubarb rice rose water rozijnen rue rutabaga rye saffron sage salad salmon salsify salt sardine sauce sauerkraut sausage scallions seaweed sherry shrimp sinterklaas smoked pork smoked sausage smoking sorrel sourdough spinach stalk celery strawberries sugar sweetbread sylvester tamarind tarragon tea thyme tomato tuna vanilla veal vegetables verjuice vinegar walnut wheat white wine wijnruit wine winter dishes witte wijn yoghurt

RSS RSS feed

  • Spaanse eieren (Huevos alla Flamenca) 23 December 2020
  • Gepekelde ansjovis 19 December 2020
  • Barokke bloemkool uit Italië 13 December 2020
  • onion bhaji 16 October 2020
  • Gerstepap voor zieken 11 October 2020

© Copyright 2002–2021 Christianne Muusers - Coquinaria