Belgian cuisine

Belgians typically eat four meals a day, with a light breakfast, medium lunch, a snack, and a large dinner.

Examples include waterzooi from Ghent, couque biscuit from the town of Dinant, and tarte au riz from Verviers.

The transition from appropriation to agriculture is thought to have occurred around 2000 BC, with migrants travelling across the continent along the Danube and Rhine rivers.

Small, cultivated plots of land grew primitive varieties of wheat (e.g. emmer and einkorn), barley, and legumes (e.g. lentils and peas).

Wealthier families regularly ate meat, while the poor subsisted primarily on legumes, milk, and cereals in the form of porridge or bread.

[1] The Celtic tribes of the Belgae, who settled in Belgium around 300 BC, brought with them not only the wheeled plough and three-field crop rotation, but also enriched the diet with poultry (e.g. chicken and geese), mead and hops beer.

Active trade led to the spread of products from other regions of the empire to the territory of Gallia Belgica (e.g. olive oil and wine from the Mediterranean).

New varieties of vegetables and herbs were presumably introduced to the region (e.g. cabbage and other brassicas, carrots, onions, beets, dill, coriander, and thyme), as well as many fruits (e.g. apples, pears, grapes, plums, and peaches), but they only became widespread in the 2nd century AD.

[4] Archaeological excavations near the town of Tienen have given insight into the cuisine of Belgica in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD: cereals (e.g. wheat, spelt, and barley), legumes (e.g. lentils, peas, and beans), fruits (e.g. plums, cherries, pears, and grapes), nuts (e.g. walnuts and hazelnuts), in addition to olive oil, porridge, bread, salt, and fennel.

[5] For most of the population, the main dish was puls: cereals mixed with water or milk, heated and with a little olive oil added, then served with lentils or beans.

Meat was rarely eaten (either fried or in vegetable soups), except freshwater fish (e.g. eel, pike, and trout).

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the ruined and decayed territories of former Belgica were settled by Franks and Germanic peoples.

They combined crop cultivation and livestock farming with hunting and gathering, but abandoned some of the food traditions of Belgica, such as fish sauce.

During his reign, the Franks were baptised, and from then on the church began to play an increasing role in the development of the kingdom, including greatly influencing the culinary traditions of Belgium.

Instead of a three-field system, the Flemish people began to fertilise the land, which allowed them to harvest twice a year and raise more livestock.

To achieve this, before serving, dishes were decorated with greens, crumbled eggs, seasoned with spices that gave colour (e.g. saffron), and poured with sauces.

While the menu of wealthy Belgians consisted of a variety of dishes and elaborate desserts, the poor still subsisted on bread, beer and vegetable soups.

[12] In the 20th century, more exotic fruits and vegetables were introduced (e.g. bananas, kiwis, avocados, sweet peppers and aubergines), which gradually entered the everyday life of Belgians only with the spread of supermarkets.

Some culinary traditions were lost because working class women, in order to save time, began to cook only the simplest and most nourishing dishes.

Recently, Belgians have become more health-conscious, so many families favour light, healthy meals with lots of vegetables,[13] as well as fresh, natural products without chemical additives.

The earliest evidence of the dish comes from a book entitled Curiosités de la table dans les Pays-Bas-Belgiques written in 1781, which described how inhabitants of Namur, Dinant and Andenne around the river Meuse had eaten fried potatoes since around 1680.

The vast majority of Belgian households have a deep fryer, allowing them to make their own fries and other deep-fried foods at home.

In June 2017 the European Commission issued a recommendation to limit the chemical acrylamide—a natural result of frying some foods at high temperatures—from reaching consumers, due to its alleged carcinogenic properties.

[18] The brewing tradition in Belgium can be traced back to the early Middle Ages and six Trappist monasteries still produce beer, which was initially used to fund their upkeep.

[22] Jenever is a "Protected Product of Origin", having received eleven different appellations or AOCs from the European Union, and can only be crafted in Belgium, the Netherlands and a few areas in France and Germany.

In order to prevent adulteration of the chocolate with low-quality fats from other sources, a minimum level of 35% pure cocoa was imposed.