Biscuit with mice

Biscuit with mice in Netherlands eaten especially when a baby is born.

Biscuit with mice is a typical Dutch tradition . In Flanders treat parents after a birth on sugar beans, North Brabant is also tradition, along with biscuit with mice.

Contents

 * Preparation 1
 * 2 Origin
 * 2.1 Old stall use
 * 2.2 Anise
 * 2.3 Symbolism
 * 2.4 Origins
 * 3 Colors
 * 3.1 Pink and blue
 * 3.2 Orange
 * Yellow 3.3
 * 3.4 Green

Preparation
Rusks are twice baked round, flat bread which thus become crusty and somewhat fragile. This one lubricates butter or margarine and it then does one of the mice . The biscuit to "stamp" are evenly distributed in a bowl with mice. These 'mice' are sugared anise seeds . Until mid-1990 mice were always pink with white. Then, mice in two different colors on the market: blue with white mice are used when a boy is born, and pinkto white when a girl is concerned.

Rusk with pink mice

Old stall use
Already in the Middle Ages it was customary for the mother and the puppy visitors were treated to a treat. The birth of a child was quite celebrated, while the whole neighborhood got involved. Getting a child could be dangerous at that time. Given the medical conditions when there was a risk that both mother and child childbirth did not survive. A prosperous and successful birth had to be celebrated properly (including by food stall, the stall shaking and christening ).

Soon after the birth flowed maternity visit inside. The neighborhood children were treated to delicacies that the new baby was supposedly brought. The kids got a Suikerbol or a slice of bread with sugar, the child RenderMan suffocate .

It is impossible to determine how biscuit with mice actually are formed. Previously, only biscuits as a treat eaten on festive occasions. It was a real luxury reserved only for the rich. A thick sugared biscuit was eaten as a treat to celebrate the birth. For ordinary people, there was sugared white bread .

Anise
The basis of the mice is the combination of sugar and anise seeds. Traditionally, the anise seeds and aniseed oil attributed medicinal properties. Also, anise was used in the preparation of food, beverage and pharmaceuticals. Thus told Baker the new mother that she had to eat anise because that would be good for the production of breast milk . Around the 17th century, was immediately after childbirth anisette, also known as anisette, donated to the new mother. Anise at the time had the reputation that the uterus could return soon after birth to its original size, it would also ward off evil spirits.

Symbolism
On the origin of the name 'mouse' Not all historians agree. Some say that the shape of the sugar dipped in anise seed, with its tail, has led to the name. The name may originate in the emblem of fertility representing the mouse (mouse propagates rapidly namely forth).

Another old custom is to give stall bottles to the children. In a bottle with a narrow neck were anise mice and the mice which children had to pick out. This was symbolic of the way the baby was born.

Descent
The biscuit with mice which is now known throughout the Netherlands, is from the Zaandam . In some parts of the country, mostly in Gelderland, South Holland and North Brabant, the biscuits were strewn at birth with anise seeds surrounded by a layer of icing. In the Netherlands the mice of De Ruijter known. The basis for this was laid in 1860 when Cornelis de Ruijter started his own coffee house, after he had learned the trade from a pastry shop in Utrecht.

Pink and blue
blue mice

Orange mice

Initially, the mice were pink with the arrival of a white girl and a boy. Later, both colors were mixed. Today, the mice pink / white at the birth of a girl and blue / white with a boy, after the introduction of the blue and white mice in 1994.

Orange
The firm De Ruijter made ​​in 1938 for a big publicity stunt by the birth of Princess Beatrix large orange mice look at Soestdijk Palace to convey. It was then in all thenewsreels screened. Offering orange mice at the birth of a prince or princess of Orange has since become a tradition. Orange mice are temporarily sold in supermarkets.

Yellow
The Roman Catholic Church in the Netherlands put the "birth" of the new Pope Benedict XVI luster to treat by at biscuit with yellow / white mice. The mice in the papal colors were presented on 23 April 2005 at various locations in the country, for example, visitors to the Kerkendag in Zwolle and the shoppers at the Vredenburg in Utrecht.

The opening of the 250th Jumbo supermarket was celebrated with rusk with yellow / white mice.

Green
To celebrate the "birth" of the new city center of Zaandam, the birthplace of the biscuit with mice tradition, has Delicia collaboration AH Green / White Zaandam mice released. (January 2012) As the name 'mice' protected appears to be possibly at next production will need to be adapted name.