Koken Met de Seizoenen

Feels like a cross between the modest spiral-bound "Provincial Dutch Home Kitchen" and the practical notes of "Sea Farmer's Almanac". I liked the annotated history and maps, but the flavor adjustments lean timid, reducing the briny bite of North Sea fish that I expect.

De Vries' voice is authoritative but distant. I learned a bit of lineage for raapstelen, yet the persona never invites you into the kitchen.

Useful, but occasionally dated in tone.
- clear market calendars
- helpful lighter tweaks
- some measures vague
- few ingredients hard to source

Wat een rijk boek: je ruikt de marktpleinen van Leiden tot Leeuwarden terwijl de kaarten en houtsneden je door de seizoenen loodsen. De feestdagnotities en de kleine etymologieën geven diepte aan boerenkool, raapstelen en haring, en de lichtere bereidingswijzen passen wonderbaarlijk bij moderne tafels.

This reads as a cultural study as much as a cookbook, "bridging hearth and history" through feast-day notes and market rhythms. By lightening dishes without sanding off their names or roots, de Vries shows how tradition adapts rather than ossifies.

De Vries organizes the seasons with an academic neatness; sections begin with market calendars, then drift into annotation, and finally resolve in lighter reworks of boerenkool and schorseneren. The prose is precise without fuss, and the marginal etymologies feel like footnotes you actually want to read, though a few recipes still assume a 1950s pantry.