Hutspot

There’s a dish in the Netherlands called ‘Hutspot’. Hutspot is famous as the dish found in the Spanish camp in 1574 after the sea beggars delivered the city from the Spanish siege. It’s a mythical dish that everybody knows, but what’s in it is a bit of a guess. The pot survived and can be seen in the Lakenhal museum. The contents of the pot is a bit more complicated, nobody made an accurate record of the contents.

Despite the lack of clear record of the contents of the dish the town of Leiden celebrates the relief of Leiden every year on October 3d with a big carnival and in many houses, hutspot is eaten for dinner in a tradition dating back to the relief itself. Modern (Leidse) hutspot consists of potatoes, carrots, and onions mashed together, served with beef brisket.

While potatoes are known by 1574 to be edible by some people in Europe, the chances of finding them in foot soldiers food are quite slim. Modern popular opinion assumes the dish found in the camp to hold parsnip, carrots, and onion but evidence for this hasn’t appeared yet. There are records of modern carrots existing in England in the 17th century and the Dutch might have created orange carrots to honor the Dutch flag in the 17th century.    A publication from the Historische vereniging Oud Leiden (Leiden Historical Society) from 1928 has historic versions with prunes and lemon juice but is shedding doubt on the unbroken yearly tradition of eating hutspot to remember the siege. In the Kleine geschiedenis van de hutspot Jacques Meerman pointed at the appearance of pastinaak as the original hutspot ingredient sometime between 1990 and 2005 when they appear in the Dikke van Dam, a collection of writings on food by Johannes van Dam, a well known Dutch food author.

Hutspot is quite similar to the word hutsepot which is a dish from modern day Belgium and the nord of France, called hochepot in French. The oldest recipe for that is from the Manuscrit de Sion (early 14th century). According to the official spelling guide for Dutch, the two words are just different versions of the same thing. The Belgian/French dish is a soupy stew of different vegetables and meat boiled together in stock. The ingredients of which are a bit vague and depend on the cook. Quite similar to the diversity of Hutspot recipes that can be found in the Dutch recipes from the 17th century .

Despite the diversity of remaining recipes (at least 7 in my own overview and 4 more other versions of hutspots in the first 7)  there seems to have been a concept of Dutch (or Hollands) hutspot.  This is a recipe that can be found not in a Dutch source but in an English source, A Delightfull Daily Exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen by John Murrell, printed in 1617 holds a recipe for ‘Hutchpot on the Dutch fashion’ and this is the base of the Hutspot served as travelers fare at Serve it Forth.

To make a Hutchpot on the Dutch fashion

Take seven or eight pieces of the best of the Beefe, 
and every piece as broad as your hand, and set them 
on the fire in two gallons of water, and than when 
they boyle skimme them, letting it stew halfe away: 
then take a good handfull of Parsley, two handfulls 
of Spinage, halfe a handfull of Savory and Thime 
(stript, wring them betweene your hands once or twice 
and when that is done throwe it into your meate, 
Then put in three or foure whole onions Pepper three 
or foure blades of Mace and a little salt, three or 
foure quartered carrets, if the carrets bee small 
you may then put in the more according to your owne 
judgement, and then let it boyle againe close covered 
till halfe boyled away, than dish it upon sippets and 
poure your Carrets and the Herbes upon the toppe 
thereof, and than throw salt upon it and so serve it 
to the Table hotte.

Modern Recipe:

• Beef, I used ‘runderpoulet’ or soup beef or riblab. Essentially stewing beef that should cook for a while
• Spinach (frozen works well enough)
• Carrots (chopped)
• Onions (chopped)
• Pepper
• Nutmeg (that went missing by accident at SiF)
• Flatleaf parsley (flat leaf or Italian parsley will keep it’s flavor when heated)
• Bread
• Savory (Satureja Hortensis)

1. Cover Ingredients with plenty of water and let stew
2. Allow stew to boil down and thicken
3. Serve poured ovr bread