This Dutch treat is one of the world’s greatest beer snacks

The dish: Bitterballen, Netherlands

Bitterballen, a typical Dutch snack, served warm with mustard.Credit: iStock

Plate up

Let’s talk about the world’s greatest beer snacks. In Spain, any tapa is a beer snack: prawns with garlic, gildas, chorizo in cider. Then there’s buffalo wings in the US, Scotch eggs in the UK, shiokara (fermented squid) in Japan, neua dad deaw (dried beef) in Thailand and laziji (chilli chicken) in China. But the one many of us tend to forget is Dutch bitterballen.

These bite-sized savoury snacks give you everything you need while you’re downing La Trappe ales in a brown cafe – a classic old-school, wood-panelled pub. To make bitterballen, start with a roux of butter and flour, add spices and aromatics, hunks of stewing beef or mince and beef stock, and let the whole thing bubble away. Refrigerate the stew and roll the thickened mixture into small balls to be breaded and deep-fried. The resulting snacks are richly savoury, crunchy and warming, ideal with mustard for dipping and cold beer for sipping.

First serve

There are two theories about the origin of bitterballen. The first regards French chef Francois Massialot who cooked for Louis XIV. He included croquettes in a cookbook that became very popular in the Netherlands and over time his croquettes morphed into bitterballen.

The other story goes further back. The Batavians, an ancient Germanic tribe who lived on the Dutch Rhine, came up with the idea of using leftover meat and bread to create a stew. When the Spanish invaded in the 16th century, they took this cold stew, rolled it in egg and breadcrumbs and fried it. In the late 18th century an enterprising publican, Jan Barentz, began serving these small snacks to Dutch drinkers.

Order there

Choose from any of Amsterdam’s brown cafes for a bitterballen experience. Cafe Chris, dating back to 1624, is perfection.

Order here

In Sydney, head to the Dutch club in Frenchs Forest for all your beer and bitterballen needs. Melburnians can go to  lekkerlekker.com.au to buy bitterballen.

One more thing

The Dutch history of colonisation means bitterballen crops up in several other countries, some far from Europe. Expect to find these treats in the likes of Suriname, the Dutch Antilles and Indonesia.