page_title: Dutch cuisine
section_title: Breakfast and lunch
hierarchical_section_title: Dutch cuisine / Structure of meals / Breakfast and lunch
caption_attribution_description: English: Hagelslag, muisjes, vlokken and other spreads on display in a typical Dutch supermarket.Nederlands: Hagelslag, muisjes, vlokken en ander broodbeleg in een schap van een Nederlandse supermarkt.
context_page_description: Dutch cuisine is formed from the cooking traditions and practices of the Netherlands. 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, and trading over sea, its former colonial empire and the spice trade.
  Traditionally, Dutch cuisine is simple and straightforward, with many vegetables and little meat: breakfast and lunch are typically bread with toppings like cheese, while dinner is meat and potatoes, supplemented with seasonal vegetables. The diet contains many dairy products and was relatively high in carbohydrates and fat, reflecting the dietary needs of the laborers whose culture molded the country. Without many refinements, it is best described as rustic, though many holidays are celebrated with special foods.
  During the twentieth century, Dutch cuisine and diet changed. Influenced by the eating culture of its colonies, it became more cosmopolitan and most international cuisines are represented in the major cities.
context_section_description: Breakfast and lunch differ little in Dutch cuisine and both consist of bread with a wide variety of cold cuts, cheeses and sweet toppings; such as hagelslag, vlokken, muisjes, gestampte muisjes, chocolate spread, treacle (a thick, dark brown sugar syrup called stroop), apple butter and peanut butter.
  The Dutch are famous for their dairy products and especially for their cheeses. The vast majority of Dutch cheeses are semi-hard or hard cheeses. Famous Dutch cheeses include Gouda cheese, Edam cheese, and Leyden cheese. A typically Dutch way of making cheese is to blend in herbs or spices during the first stages of the production process. Famous examples of this are cheeses with cloves (usually the Friesian Clove), cumin (most famously Leyden cheese), or nettles.
  Dutch bread tends to be very airy, as it is made from yeast dough. From the 1970s onward Dutch bread became predominantly whole grain, with additional seeds such as sunflower or pumpkin seeds often mixed with the dough for taste. Rye bread is one of the few dense breads of the Netherlands. White bread used to be the luxury bread, often made with milk as well as water. A Frisian luxury version of white bread is suikerbrood, white bread with large lumps of sugar mixed with the dough. Kerststol is a traditional Dutch Christmas bread made of bread dough with sugar, dried fruits, raisins, almond paste; and currants, and lemon and orange zest, eaten sliced, spread with butter.
  Ontbijtkoek may be eaten as a substitute for a full breakfast, or simply as a snack. It is served as a small slice, usually with butter.
caption: Hagelslag, muisjes and vlokken on display in a Dutch supermarket.
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