Sinterklaas includes ginger nuts and spice nuts. However, many people think that ginger nuts and spice nuts are the same. That is not the case. But how does a pepper nut differ from a spice nut? And where do all those customs around Sinterklaas actually come from? Why, for example, is Sinterklaas also thrown with chocolate coins?
Peppernut: with honey and anise
The pepper nut and the spice nut are repeatedly interchanged. Yet they differ in structure and taste. The pepper nut most resembles chewy teeth and has a honey taste (not predominant, but the taste is there). Anise is also often used in the pepper nut. The pepper nut is made from rye flour. Pepernoten contains less saturated fat than spice nuts. In terms of calories, both refreshments contain the same amount of energy.
The spice nut
The spice nut is harder than the pepper nut. It also has the shape of a half sphere. The spice nut is made from wheat flour and is spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger powder, cardamom and white pepper. These spices together are also known as gingerbread spices. The cookies that Zwarte Piet often throws are generally spice nuts and therefore not the ginger nuts that are always and everywhere sung about.
The history of the gingerbread cookies
History says that gingerbread cookies actually come from Germany. They were baked there in monasteries in the thirteenth century and had to replace ordinary nuts. In the provinces of Friesland and Groningen, the gingerbread nut was a symbol of fertility. Bridal couples scattered them as a sign of a child-rich future. They actually referred to a farmer who sprinkled his fields with seed by hand. Sprinkling gingerbread cookies gives the same movement and therefore also has the same intention, namely growth and maturity.
Sprinkling chocolate coins
In the past, in addition to ginger nuts (or actually, spice nuts), chocolate coins were also scattered by Zwarte Piet. This is a result of an old legend where Saint Nicholas met three young girls whose father could not pay the dowry and so they could not get married. Saint Nicholas then threw a number of coins at them, so that they could still get married. Nowadays there is no longer so much sprinkled with chocolate coins, but they are still for sale. Nowadays there is often other sweets in the form of candy among the spice nuts.
In 2009, 6.3 million pepper and spice nuts were consumed
It will also have to do with the fact that spice and ginger nuts are sometimes on the store shelves as early as August, but the Dutch are increasingly eating pepper and spice nuts. In 2009 no less than 6.3 million kilograms of ginger nuts and spice nuts were eaten. This is approximately 4 ounces per person. In 2008 this was 6.1 million kilograms and in 2007 it was 5.8 million kilograms.
Where are ginger nuts and spice nuts baked?
There are several products of ginger nuts and spice nuts in the Netherlands, but the majority of this candy from Sinterklaas comes from a factory in Harderwijk.
Kruidnuts and ginger nuts can also be mixed with pasta or meat
Kruidnuts and ginger nuts are often eaten straight from the fist, or delicious with tea or coffee. But the nuts also work well in soup (onion soup) or in gravy with meat. The ground spice nuts can even go through the paste.