By Porter Lang
Start with the kit. A tall pan with a lid, a masher with an open structure, and a sausage. One of the food sources below lists a “stamppotstamper” as the one real piece of equipment, and a second says to use a masher with open structure rather than one with small holes. That is most of the shopping list.
What it is
Stamppot means “mash pot”. Wikipedia defines it as a traditional Dutch dish of potatoes mashed with one or more vegetables, usually served with sausage. The kale version, boerenkool stamppot, is made with curly kale and typically served with rookworst, a smoked sausage. A promotional blog from a spice seller, Natural Spices, calls it the most eaten stamppot in the Netherlands, and the language blog at Transparent Language says stamppot is eaten year round but is most popular in colder months.
Why wait for frost
Two sources say the cold matters. Natural Spices recommends eating it after the first night frost, because cold weather increases the kale’s natural sugars. The Dutch Table, a food blog, says frost improves kale’s flavour and that American kale tends to be less bitter than Dutch kale.
Coquinaria, a food-history blog, makes a different point: kale’s frost resistance made it valuable because it could still be harvested in deep winter. It adds that kale was the ordinary green for country people until the late Middle Ages, when headed cabbages gained favour.
Our reading: the sugar claim and the harvest claim are separate. One is about taste, the other about when the plant is available, and the sources do not contradict each other.
Four recipes, side by side
| Source | Kale | Potatoes | Sausage | Method note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coquinaria | 500 to 600 g chopped | 1 kg | rookworst | simmer about 20 minutes; add bacon, onion, vinegar |
| Transparent Language | 300 g | 750 g floury | about 225 g | kale on top of potatoes; 5 minutes, then sausage and 20 more |
| The Dutch Table | not given in grams | floury | smoked rope sausage such as kielbasa | add raw kale after about 15 minutes; 10 more minutes |
| Natural Spices | not given | floury | smoked sausage | milk, bacon bits, mustard on the side |
Floury potatoes appear in three of the four. Coquinaria uses a stock cube in the water and finishes with lard or butter; the Dutch Table uses butter and warm milk; Transparent Language uses a splash of milk. The sources do not agree on the fat, and we do not choose.
Reading the method
Three of the four cook the kale and potatoes in the same pot with the sausage on top, then lift the sausage out before mashing. Coquinaria says to drain, keep the liquid, mash without making a purée, then loosen with some cooking liquid. The Dutch Table says the kale wilts considerably when added raw. Both mention serving the sausage on top, whole or sliced.
Coquinaria’s idea for leftovers is to shape the purée, without the sausage, into sticks or balls, bread them and fry them like kroketten.
What rookworst is
Rookworst is a Dutch smoked sausage. The Dutch Table, a food blog, suggests kielbasa or Polish smoked sausage if you cannot find it.
Dates and age
- Late Middle Ages: kale is the country green, then loses ground to headed cabbages (Coquinaria).
- Eighteenth century: Coquinaria points to a kale recipe with chestnuts, as evidence that the Dutch have eaten the dish for centuries. That is a related recipe, not a mash.
- Late 1700s: Transparent Language says the potato replaced the parsnip in these dishes.
The volcano
Coquinaria says stamppot was formerly served as a “volcano”, a mound with a well of leftover gravy in the middle, and that today people often use packaged gravy. The author uses none.
Other stamppots
Transparent Language lists endive (andijvie), sauerkraut (zuurkool) and Hete Bliksem, made with apple and potato. Wikipedia adds carrot and onion (hutspot), sauerkraut and, in some regional versions, pears or sweet apples. A vegetarian version, says Coquinaria, uses a vegetable stock cube, extra onion, and no bacon or lard.
What we left out
We left out the story that ties the related carrot-and-onion dish to a siege, because it involves war and the sources treat it as legend, and any supermarket brands.
Quick answers
What is boerenkool stamppot? According to Wikipedia, mashed potatoes with curly kale, typically served with a smoked sausage called rookworst.
When do cooks make it? Natural Spices says after the first night frost, because cold raises the kale’s natural sugars. Transparent Language says it is most popular in colder months.
What is rookworst? A smoked Dutch sausage, usually served on top of the kale mash.
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