Boterham met kaas — the Dutch traveler's sandwich, carried in a pocket on the road
The Walker's Snack: Bread, Cheese, and Hard-Boiled Egg
TravelDocumented🧂 🫙facile15 min
A slice of brown bread topped with aged Dutch cheese and a crushed hard-boiled egg — the pocket meal of the wandering painter, no cooking required, ready to be eaten under a tree.
Boterham met kaas — the Dutch traveler's sandwich, carried in a pocket on the road
A slice of brown bread topped with aged Dutch cheese and a crushed hard-boiled egg — the pocket meal of the wandering painter, no cooking required, ready to be eaten under a tree.
When I set out on the roads, my friend, I did not burden myself with a feast: a piece of bread, a slice of our good Dutch cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and that was enough to walk all day. I would sit at the edge of a field, eating while watching the sowers and the light on the wheat, and I believe that this poor meal nourished my eyes as much as my belly. The slightly aged cheese, the brown bread — it is solid and costs almost nothing; thus I had a few sous left for colors, and colors, you see, were my true hunger.
Ingredients
- •Brown bread — a hunk (base)
- •Aged Dutch cheese (Gouda/Edam type) — a thick slice (fermented garnish)
- •Hard-boiled egg — one (protein)
- •Salt — a pinch (seasoning)
How it was made : Dutch cheese, a pressed cheese with long keeping qualities, was an ideal travel food in the 19th century: it did not spoil and was filling. With bread and a hard-boiled egg, it made up the universal cold meal of walkers, peddlers, and Northern workers.