Dutch Influences on American Food: Dutch Contributions

Doughnuts, pretzels, coleslaw, pancakes, waffles, wafers, and, above all, cookies are all part of America’s culinary heritage brought to New Netherland by the Dutch in the seventeenth century. The Dutch words koolsla and koekje were even adopted into American English with only slight transformations. Kool (pronounced like “cole”) means “cabbage,” and sla means “salad”; together they became our American “coleslaw.” The Dutch koekje (the “oe” is pronounced like “oo”), which is the diminutive of koek, a flat, not highly risen baked good, forms the root of the American word “cookie.” The British call cookies “little cakes” or “biscuits.” The first American cookbook, Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, published in 1796, features several cookie recipes, and Americans have loved cookies ever since.