Volendam is a quaint fishing town that is a 30 mins drive from Amsterdam. For someone willing to venture beyond the well-trodden path, a unique epicurean journey awaits. Located on the shores of the country’s biggest lake, the Ijsselmeer, Volendam is a favourite place for visitors and locals to enjoy Dutch seafood.
Smit-Bokkum: A Living Legacy
Volendam’s story unfolds in the flavoursome aroma of smoked eel, a delicacy deeply embedded in the town’s history. Smit-Bokkum, established in 1856 is a smokehouse and restaurant where 6 generations have kept their family tradition of smoking eel alive. Today, many still travel to Volendam to visit this living museum to learn about (and of course to taste!) the age-old art of eel smoking.
A Symphony of Tradition and Innovation
The process of eel smoking is a spectacle in itself – buckets of gutted eels, freshly caught alive the night before, undergo a meticulous journey from soaking to smoking. Preparation requires a process where the eels are stomped on to have them softened before they are rinsed and strung at the head on long metal rods.
What follows is a manual process of smoking and tending to a fire for about two hours. There are no gadgets used here, not even a thermometer. The only tools used is a pole, a shovel, a lighter, a bucket of water, and one’s sharp instincts to ensure the heat is distributed evenly.
Historically, hundreds of fisherman made a living in the Zuiderzee (a former shallow bay that was part of the North Sea). However, disastrous tides continously wreaked havoc on the land and villages so the Dutch decided to transform Zuiderzee into a freshwater lake.
After decades of planning (documented plans date back to 1667), and with modern engineering tools, the construction of the Afsluitdijk dam was finally completed in 1932.
The massive Afsluitdijk completely closed off the Zuiderzee to towns and cities like Hoorn, Amsterdam, Almere, and Voldendam. The new body of water that was created was named IJsselmeer, .
At its peak, Volendam fishermen caught eels by the ton. That has since dropped drastically since the 1980s by 95%, and eel fishing season is typically only about four months – from mid-April to August.
European eels have a complex life cycle. Adult European eels swim to warm Sargasso Sea in the Caribbean (in the Bermuda Triangle) to breed. The baby eels (also known as glass eels) swim all the way back to Europe (an impressive 6000 km migration across the Atlantic ocean) to spend most of their adult lives in freshwater rivers. The process then repeats itself all over again when the eels mature and return to warmer water to spawn, lay eggs and eventually die.
Sustainability and Beyond
The European eel isi now labeled as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. With fishing quotas and restrictions, Volendam is now urgenntly trying to balance cultural heritage with a sustainable future.
In the Netherlands, the DUPAN (Dutch Association of Eel traders) aims to strengthen the population of eels in the Dutch inland waterways, where over 15,000 barriers are said to cause deaths and obstruct the migration and reproductive cycle of the eel. DUPAN is focused on finding sustainable solutions for the catch and farming of eel, for environmental and animal-friendly processing, and supporting scientific research for eels.
Smit-Bokkum is supporting aquaculture research by Glasaal Volendam, one of such research organisations. Glasaal Volendam is trying to develop a technique that could make their lab the first in the world to (commercially) reproduce European eels in waters outside the Sargasso sea. This would ensure a reversal in the diminishing number of eels.
If the farming of European eel can be done on a commercial level then there may be opportunity for the rich tradition of eel smoking to continue for generations to come.
In the meantime, a visit to Volendam should still be planned where Smit-Bokkum has put together a selection of their home-smoked fish. Hot smoked eel, seabass, salmon and sea bream is served with a fresh sourdough bread and salad.
Image credit: Jimme Woudstra/ Smit-Bokkum
