Regula Ysewijn - Dark Rye and Honey Cake

I want to acknowledge that many recipes in this book would not have existed or would have evolved differently if not for sugar and spice imports that were made possible due to brutality and slavery by companies like the Dutch East India Company (VOC) and private individuals. Sugar and spices had a cost, and that cost was paid by those held in bondage.

These recipes help tell this story and the social and political history of our world, and the desire people had, and continue to have, for spices and sweetness. Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany switched their primary sugar production to domestic beet sugar in the 19th century, which was an economic decision.

From the heart of the Low Countries of northwestern Europe, Belgium has long forged a distinctive culinary identity through its seasonal feasts and festivals. In this follow-up to her internationally lauded Pride and Pudding and Oats in the North, Wheat from the South , Regula Ysewijn turns her attention to the baking traditions of this unique country the place of her birth.

Regula uses history and art to guide the reader through a fascinating period, and paints through her stunning photography and recipes the landscape of the regions rich baking culture. Dark Rye and Honey Cake explores a whole year of rustic bakes, unearthing long-forgotten recipes and reviving treasured favourites. There are waffles and winter breads for the 12 days of Christmas, pancakes for Candlemas and Carnival, pretzels for Lent, vlaai and fried dough for Kermis and all the special sweet treats that make up Saint Nicholas and Saint Martin.

With this collection of timeless recipes, Regula reveals the origins of her countrys ancient food culture and brings a little Belgian baking into every home.

The scholarship here is astonishing. It is an engrossing, original and beautiful book.

Diana Henry

A rare glimpse into the rich and fascinating food culture of one of our closest neighbours a work of scholarship, but also a work of art.

Felicity Cloake

This is a gorgeous book; full of recipes I want to cook, foods I want to eat, and pictures I want to lose myself in for hours on end.

Dr Annie Gray

An irresistibly tactile book, and a work of art in its own right, filled with detail and description, glorious photography and curious tales, surprise and satisfaction. I cannot think of a single person that it would not appeal to.

Caroline Eden

Foreword

This is a gorgeous book. Its a book full of recipes I want to cook, foods I want to eat, and pictures I want to lose myself in for hours on end. It is also a fascinating read, a love letter to the culinary heritage and rich social history of the Low Countries, and an at times intimate glimpse into the personal journey Regula has undertaken over the past several years.

What do I, a British historian, know of the history of Belgium and the Low Countries? Bits and pieces. I studied the wars of the 17th and 18th centuries in school and know a great deal about the highly specific topic of Vaubans barrier fortresses. I read about European political history at university and have a superficial knowledge about how the areas now contained within northern France, Belgium and the Netherlands were torn apart and apportioned to different countries regardless of the desires and identities of the populations living there. And I fell in love with the incredible artistic outpourings from mainly Flemish artists of the early modern era, so unique in style and subject, and so useful to the food historian. Many of the paintings illustrated in this book are like old friends to me, from Bruegel to Peeters, from banketletter to peperkoek.

The joy of this book is that now I know more. Regulas writing, as lyrical as always, has opened my eyes to the ways in which language and politics are so intertwined in the culture of the Low Countries, and how this feeds directly into its baking heritage. Shes enriched my knowledge of everyday bakes and also explained what Im seeing when I drool over long-gone tarts and biscuits in the paintings I thought I knew so well.

Then there are the photographs, which avid readers of Regulas books have come to expect to be beautiful. Shes always had an Old Masterish touch, and the pictures here are like Rembrandts come to life. We walk with her through the history of baking, and through the towns and villages of her native country. The fact that her love of Belgian bakes has grown so gradually is reflected throughout, and each word, each recipe and each picture unfolds like a story being told.

Reading Regulas introduction I am struck by how much we have all lost in the last few years, and yet how loss may also turn to gain. Between Brexit and Covid, the easy, open relationship between Britain and its continental neighbours has been redrawn. Those who, like myself and Regula, lived happily with a small part of ourselves wedded to a different country have had to turn inward, and question what makes us who we are. So while this book is a history book, and a recipe book, and a book of beautiful pictures, it is also a statement of hope. For in letting go, just a little, of her love for England, Regula has shone a powerful light on Belgium. If just a little of what comes from the current turmoil is as glorious as this, then the future may be bright indeed.

Dr Annie Gray, Historian

CONTENTS

RECIPES

Twelve days of Christmas

Waffles

Midwinter and festival bread

Candlemas, Carnival and Lent

Pancakes

Pretzels

Kermis (fair)

Fritters

Vlaaien

Saint Martin and Saint Nicholas