Slecht Geweten Bisquetten

The decision of the Dutch cookie producer Patisserie Pater, (formerly Davelaar), to change the name of their main brand cookies since 1883 - from Jodenkoeken (Jew cookies) to Odekoeken (Ode cookies) - has created quite a stir in the cookie-jar in the Netherlands and rest of the world. These plain cookies are turning into the biscuits of bad conscience. The Ode-cookie is certainly no ode to happiness among Jews. Dutch Jews have never really demanded such a name-change and are not offended by the original name (see here).

When the Dutch banned the Jodenvett (Jewish fat), a sugary candy, the Dutch neo-puritanism was OK. That ban came few decades after 90 % of the Jews of the Netherlands were killed in the Shoah.

Jodenkoeken have relatives in Denmark and Iceland, probably all descending from the Dutch Jodenkoek (sing.), although the Danes stubbornly think their cookies were invented by Jewish bakers, when there where never any Jewish bakers in Denmark, and the same has been argued for Iceland, a country which apart from no Jewish bakers, nearly had no Jews until the 1930s. The Icelandic Joedenkoek, Gyðingakaka, came to Iceland with different Danish bakers, most of whom came from the Schleswig-Holstein area close to Frisia. The Frisians also bake Joedenkoeken.

If the Dutch could eradicate antisemitism, e.g. football supporters from Rotterdam shouting "kill the Jews" or "we have been working in Auschwitz", that would be fine. I once witnessed them chant this and other things after loosing a game in Amsterdam, when I caught the wrong southbound train to den Haag and had to get off to wait for another one in Leiden. Ajax was possibly a "Jewish" team when may father was growing up by the Waterlooplein and later in North-Amsterdam, but today?

Claiming there is no sugar in the Icelandic variation, gyðingakökur, is also a very political incorrect statement if not hateful. Icelanders hardly eat anything unless there is lots of sugar in it. Typical gyðingakökur-recipes contain 250 grams sugar to 500 grams of flour.

The second last tin of Jodenkoeken from Davelaar I bought in the Netherlands, I depicted in the fashion of the the old Dutch Masters. It will be missed. Unlike the tradition in Holland, where a cookie jar can be stretched for weeks or even months, this one was consumed in a couple of days in may home.

News are coming in, telling me that the Cookie Monster is very sad receiving the news that Jodenkoeken are being banned by some Dutch firms. Hearing this, he is going to boycott Dutch cookies altogether, even the all mighty spekulaas. CRUNCH!