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A jodenkoek (in
Claimed to have been first baked in the 17th century, these biscuits were advertised by bakeries as early as 1872. Jodenkoeken were made famous by a baker called Davelaar, in
/ref> * Lotus Bakeries claims that the recipe originates from a Jewish baker in Amsterdam who sold the biscuits around 1920. This baker sold the recipe to a bakery in Enkhuizen. * A baker with surname ‘de Joode’ baked the biscuits. * Jodenkoeken are big but very flat, making it a cheap product to produce. A lot of cheap products got the prefix ''Jewish'' in the past. A lot of Jews were poor, making it likely that they bought cheaper things because it was necessary. * The last story associates the biscuit with the unleavened bread baked by the Jews of ancient Egypt at the time of the exodus. The connection is made by the physical properties that both the biscuits and unleavened bread have in common: they are both flat, crunchy and have a very low water content, moisture content, resulting in a long
Website of producer Davelaar Koeken, Amarant Bakkersholding B.V.
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317141914/http://www.davelaar-koeken.nl/assortiment/jodenkoeken , date=2012-03-17
Website of producer Van Dijk Banket B. V
goeievraag.nl
origin of the word Dutch cookies Shortbread
Dutch
Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to:
* Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands
** Dutch people as an ethnic group ()
** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship ()
** Dutch language ()
* In specific terms, i ...
, literal translation
Literal translation, direct translation, or word-for-word translation is the translation of a text done by translating each word separately without analysing how the words are used together in a phrase or sentence.
In translation theory, anoth ...
: "Jew biscuit", plural: jodenkoeken) is a big, flat, round shortbread
Shortbread or shortie is a traditional Scottish biscuit usually made from one part sugar, white sugar, two parts butter and three to four parts plain flour, plain wheat flour. Shortbread does not contain leavening, such as baking powder or bakin ...
biscuit
A biscuit is a flour-based baked food item. Biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers.
...
with a diameter of about .
History
Claimed to have been first baked in the 17th century, these biscuits were advertised by bakeries as early as 1872. Jodenkoeken were made famous by a baker called Davelaar, in Alkmaar
Alkmaar () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands, located in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland. Alkmaar is well known fo ...
, Netherlands
, Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...
. The Stam bakery in Alkmaar started selling jodenkoeken in 1883, and Gijs Verhoeven took over this bakery in 1924. By advertising in local newspapers and by offering the biscuits through other shops, his jodenkoeken became a popular product. The company continues to bake them to this day. Similar products with the same name are produced by Lotus Bakeries
Lotus Bakeries NV is a Belgian multinational snack food company founded in 1932. Based in Lembeke, Kaprijke, the company's best known product is Speculoos (known as Biscoff in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Japan, Au ...
and O'Lacy.
Etymology
Some producers still use the old spelling, ''jodekoek'', while others have changed the name of the product to ''jodenkoek'', after the new orthography of the Netherlands from 1996. There are several explanations about the origins of the name: * The name ''jodenkoek'' (literally “Jew biscuit”) may derive from the Dutch word ''jood'', an archaic term for iodine. In the 1840s, French baker Pierre Chazelle developed a flat, hard biscuit enriched with iodine to combat goitre, which he called ''biscuit de iode'' (“iodine biscuit”). Dutch baker Paul Victor Goulmy later introduced a similar biscuit in the Netherlands under the name ''iodekransen'', which was often rendered as ''joodekransen'' due to historical spelling conventions—''jood'' being the former Dutch spelling for iodine before the adoption of the ''-ium'' suffix.René van Maarsseveen (2021), "Jodenkoeken, jodiumtekort en joden", ''renevanmaarsseveen.nl''/ref> * Lotus Bakeries claims that the recipe originates from a Jewish baker in Amsterdam who sold the biscuits around 1920. This baker sold the recipe to a bakery in Enkhuizen. * A baker with surname ‘de Joode’ baked the biscuits. * Jodenkoeken are big but very flat, making it a cheap product to produce. A lot of cheap products got the prefix ''Jewish'' in the past. A lot of Jews were poor, making it likely that they bought cheaper things because it was necessary. * The last story associates the biscuit with the unleavened bread baked by the Jews of ancient Egypt at the time of the exodus. The connection is made by the physical properties that both the biscuits and unleavened bread have in common: they are both flat, crunchy and have a very low water content, moisture content, resulting in a long
shelf-life
Shelf life is the length of time that a commodity may be stored without becoming unfit for use, consumption, or sale. In other words, it might refer to whether a commodity should no longer be on a pantry shelf (unfit for use), or no longer on a s ...
.
In the 1970s the name was thought to be discriminatory by some, and the manufacturer considered changing it, but ultimately decided against it. The name has received little to no controversy since then. Prominent rights activist Wim Kortenoeven, specialising in Jewish history, is critical of the naming of the Dutch sweet ''jodenvet'', "Jew fat" (now ', "chest honey"), but said he saw nothing wrong with the name "jodenkoek".
In 2021 Bakery Davelaar in Alkmaar decided to rename the Jodenkoek to Odekoek (or Ode biscuit).
Packaging
Originally, the biscuits were sold in metal tins with a yellow wrapper. Nowadays jodenkoeken are also sold in plastic tins lined with a purple wrapper. Because the biscuits are packaged in an air-tight tin, they remain fresh and crunchy.See also
*List of shortbread biscuits and cookies
This is a list of shortbread biscuits and cookies. Shortbread is a type of biscuit or cookie traditionally made from one part sugar, two parts butter, and three parts flour as measured by weight. Shortbread originated in Scotland; the first recor ...
References
External links
Website of producer Davelaar Koeken, Amarant Bakkersholding B.V.
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120317141914/http://www.davelaar-koeken.nl/assortiment/jodenkoeken , date=2012-03-17
Website of producer Van Dijk Banket B. V
goeievraag.nl
origin of the word Dutch cookies Shortbread