Recommendations

Dutch borrel snacks with Bols Jonge Graanjenever

On the platter are skewers with ox sausage and a silverskin onion, calf's liver sausage with a tomato and cubes of mature cheese with an Amsterdam onion, and alongside a bowl of dip of coarsely chopped pickles. Opposite stands a young grain jenever that is clear and uncasked and briefly takes away the sweet-and-sour and the fat of the sausage.

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From the shelf

The bottle

Bols Jonge Graanjenever comes from Lucas Bols, the Amsterdam name that has been tied to jenever since 1575. It is a young grain jenever of 35% vol in a 100 cl bottle, double-distilled and cold-filtered, built from grain alcohol with malt wine and juniper. The bottle gives no precise malt wine share; the designation young jenever requires at least 35% vol and at least 1.5% of the alcohol from malt wine, and in practice at most 15% malt wine. Ageing in wood is not part of this style, which is why the jenever stays crystal clear.

Bols Jonge Graanjenever

The combination

Why this works together

A cocktail skewer with ossenworst is at heart fat, salt and raw beef, with a sour onion that cuts through that rim of fat. The pickle dip does the same again with vinegar, mustard and turmeric, so the platter already carries a good deal of acidity. An old genever or korenwijn would lay a sweet, rounded layer of malt wine over that acidity and make the bites heavier than they are. This young grain genever does not have that weight: it consists mainly of neutral grain alcohol with juniper, so it sets alcohol and a resinous bitterness against the fat, and leaves the acidity in its own form. The cubes of mature cheese are the saltiest part of the platter; the cold genever washes that salt away and leaves the mouth clean again. That keeps a platter made of fat and acidity enjoyable from beginning to end.

At the table

The dish

  • For 4 people
  • Ready in 25 minutes
  • Type drinks snack

What you need

  • 85 g sweet-and-sour cocktail mix from the jar
  • 1 tablespoon fresh chives
  • 1.5 tablespoon mayonnaise
  • 0.5 tablespoon coarse Zaanse mustard
  • a quarter teaspoon of ground turmeric
  • 75 g veal liver sausage
  • 105 g ox sausage
  • 150 g mature cheese
  • 6 cherry tomatoes
  • 6 pearl onions
  • 8 Amsterdam onions
  • cocktail picks

How to make it

  1. Drain the cocktail mix and coarsely chop the vegetables, or grind them coarsely in the food processor. Finely chop the chives.
  2. Mix the chopped pickles in a small bowl with the mayonnaise, mustard, turmeric and chives. Season with pepper.
  3. Cut the veal liver sausage and the ox sausage into slices with a sharp knife. Cut the cheese into cubes.
  4. Spear a cherry tomato on each slice of calf's liver sausage, a silverskin onion on each slice of ox sausage and an Amsterdam onion on each cube of cheese.
  5. Arrange the picks on a platter and put the pickle dip beside them.

In the glass

Serving

Pour this young graanjenever ice cold, straight from the freezer, into a small tulip glass or shot glass that you fill to the rim. The cold makes the jenever syrupy and the juniper berry only comes out after the first sip, which works well with salty and sour bites. Room temperature is possible too, but then the alcohol stands out more than the juniper berry. Put the bottle back in the cold between rounds.

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Wij verkopen geen alcohol aan personen onder de 18 jaar. NIX18