Continuity and Change in the Culinary History of the Netherlands, 1945-75

Abstract

There are a number of factors which have inhibited the study of culinary history. Firstly, there has been a tendency to consider eating habits as of marginal importance. A more difficult problem is that the historian seldom has an opportunity to look directly at the evidence: by the time it has become history it has either been eaten or decayed. In the past few years, however, several books have been written by historians and anthropologists interested in culinary history as an aspect of social, economic or cultural history. In general, four types of primary sources are available: quantitative sources, questionnaires, literary sources and recipes. Each type of source has its own advantages and disadvantages. Quantitative sources include aggregate statistics on production and consumption as well as budget data. Such sources, especially those concerning the twentieth century, are easily accessible and are essential for the study of the influence of income on nutrition or the relative importance of various types of foods in the total diet, such as vegetables and proteins. However, not only is it often impossible to find quantitative data covering a long period without gaps, it is also impossible on the basis of quantitative material alone to see how a single product is used and how it is combined with other products in a national or regional cuisine. The precision of quantitative sources is more apparent than real. Literary and other artistic sources, on the other hand, can be extremely helpful to a historian trying to place a type of food in its dietary context.2 The major disadvantage of literary sources is that they are widely scattered. Another type of source which is helpful in building up a more complete picture of changes in patterns of consumption is the questionnaire.3 Not only is this kind of research extremely timeconsuming and therefore costly, it also 'cannot but reflect the structure of thought which the investigators carry to their problems'.4