Pretzel
A pretzel is a type of baked pastry made from dough that is commonly shaped into a knot. The traditional pretzel shape is a distinctive symmetrical form, with the ends of a long strip of dough intertwined and then twisted back onto itself in a particular way. Today, pretzels come in various shapes, textures, and colors, but the original soft pretzel remains one of the most common pretzel types.
Salt is the most common seasoning, or topping, for pretzels, complementing the washing soda or lye treatment that gives pretzels their traditional skin and flavor acquired through the Maillard reaction. Other toppings are mustard, cheeses, sugar, chocolate, cinnamon, sweet glazing, seeds, and nuts. Regional specialties like Spundekäs have been designed to go along with pretzels. Varieties of pretzels include soft pretzels, which should be eaten shortly after preparation, and hard-baked pretzels, which have a long shelf life.
History
There are numerous accounts regarding the origin of pretzels, as well as the origin of the name; most state that they have Christian backgrounds and were invented by European monks. According to some scholars and various sources, the most popular story is that the pretzel was made in 610 AD by an Italian monk when he decided to make a special treat to help motivate his students to keep on learning. He rolled out a few strips of dough and crossed them to try and resemble two hands praying, and after he baked it, the pretzel was born. After they were done baking, he handed them out to his students and said "pretiola". Another source locates the invention in a monastery in southern France. In Germany, there are stories that pretzels were the invention of desperate bakers held hostage by local dignitaries.The German name "Brezel" may derive also from Latin bracellus, or bracchiola.
The pretzel has been in use as an emblem of bakers and formerly their guilds in southern German areas since at least the 12th century. A 12th-century illustration of the banquet of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus in the Hortus deliciarum from the Alsace region may contain the earliest depiction of a pretzel.
Within the Christian Church, pretzels were regarded as having religious significance for both ingredients and shape. Pretzels made with a simple recipe using only flour and water could be eaten during Lent when Christians were forbidden to eat eggs, lard, or dairy products such as milk and butter. As time passed, pretzels became associated with both Lent and Easter. Pretzels were hidden on Easter morning just as eggs are hidden today, and are particularly associated with Lent, fasting and prayers before Easter.
Like the holes in the hubs of round Finnish flatbread, ruisreikäleipä, which let them be hung on poles suspended just below the kitchen ceiling, the loops in pretzels may have served a practical purpose: bakers could hang them on sticks, for instance, projecting upwards from a central column, as shown in a painting by Job Berckheyde from around 1681.
Emblem of the Bakers' Guild
Geography
Southern German-speaking regions
Pretzel baking has most firmly taken root in the region of Franconia and adjoining Upper German-speaking areas, and pretzels have been an integral part of German baking traditions for centuries. Lye pretzels are popular in southern Germany, Alsace, Austria, and German-speaking Switzerland as a variety of bread, a side dish or a snack, and come in many local varieties. Examples for pretzel names in various Upper-German dialects are Breze, Brezn, Bretzel, Brezzl, Brezgen, Bretzga, Bretzet, Bretschl, Kringel, Silserli, and Sülzerli. Baked for consumption on the same day, they are sold in every bakery and in special booths or stands in downtown streets. Often, they are sliced horizontally, buttered, and sold as Butterbrezel, or come with slices of cold meats or cheese. Butter-filled pretzels are also commonly sold under this name. Sesame, poppy, sunflower, pumpkin, or caraway seeds, melted cheese, and bacon bits are other popular toppings. Some bakeries offer pretzels made of different flours, such as whole wheat, rye or spelt.In Bavaria, lye pretzels accompany a main dish, such as Weisswurst sausage. The same dough and baking procedure with lye and salt is used to make other kinds of "lye pastry" : lye rolls, buns, croissants, and even loaves. Yet, in some parts of Bavaria, especially in lower Bavaria, unglazed "white" pretzels, sprinkled with salt and caraway seeds are still popular. Basically, with the same ingredients, lye pretzels come in numerous local varieties. Sizes are usually similar; the main differences are the thickness of the dough, the content of fat and the degree of baking. Typical Swabian pretzels, for example, have very thin "arms" and a "fat belly" with a split, and a higher fat content. The thicker part makes it easier to slice them for the use of sandwiches. In Bavarian pretzels, the arms are left thicker so they do not bake to a crisp and contain very little fat. Oversized pretzels are often sold at fairs or beer festivals.
The pretzel shape is used for a variety of sweet pastries made of different types of dough with a variety of toppings. Around Christmas, they can be made of soft gingerbread with chocolate coating. In southern Germany and adjoining German-speaking areas, pretzels have retained their original religious meanings and are still used in various traditions and festivals. In some areas, on 1 January, people give each other lightly sweetened yeast pretzels for good luck and good fortune. These "New Year's pretzels" are made in different sizes and can have a width of and more. Sometimes children visit their godparents to fetch their New Years pretzel. On 1 May, love-struck boys used to paint a pretzel on the doors of the adored. On the other hand, an upside-down pretzel would have been a sign of disgrace. Especially Catholic areas, such as Austria, Bavaria, or some parts of Swabia, the "Palm pretzel" is made for Palm Sunday celebrations. Sizes can range from up to and they can weigh up to. An old tradition on Palm Sunday dating back to 1533 is the outdoor pretzel market in the Hungerbrunnen Valley near Heldenfingen.
In the Rhineland region, sweet pretzels are made with pudding-filled loops. On Laetare Sunday in Luxembourg, the fourth Sunday in Lent, there is a festival called "Pretzel Sunday". Boys give their girlfriends pretzels or cakes in pretzel form. The size symbolizes how much he likes her. In return, if a girl wants to increase his attention, she will give him a decorated egg on Easter. The pretzel custom is reversed on Pretzel Sunday during leap years. This custom also still exists in some areas of the Swabian Alb. On the same occasion in Rhenish Hesse and the Palatinate, people have parades carrying big pretzels mounted on colourful decorated poles.
During Lent in Biberach, "Lent pretzels" are popular. These are briefly boiled in water before baking and then sprinkled with salt. Schloss Burg is renowned for a 200-year-old specialty, the "Burger pretzel". Its texture and flavour resemble rusk or zwieback. A local story says that the recipe came from a grateful Napoleonic soldier in 1795, whose wounds were treated by a baker's family in the little town of Burg. The cultural importance of the pretzel for Burg is expressed by a monument in honour of the pretzel bakers, and by an 18 km hiking trail nearby called "Pretzel Hiking Trail".
A variety typical for Upper Franconia is the "anise pretzel". The town of Weidenberg celebrates the "Pretzel weeks" during the carnival season when anise flavored pretzels are served with special dishes such as cooked meat with horseradish or roast.
In the city of Lübeck, the 500-year-old guild of boatmen on the Stecknitz Canal call their annual meetings in January Kringelhöge. The elaborate affair, with about 200 participants, is celebrated as a breakfast with beer and includes Mass in the Lübeck Cathedral and a presentation of songs by a children's choir. In earlier times, the children were very poor, coming from an orphanage, and each received a Kringel as a reward. Hence, the name "Pretzelfun" was adopted, because this gift was considered a highlight. Today, the children come from schools, but they still get the pretzels.
The city of Osnabrück celebrates the anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia and organizes an annual hobby horse race for grade-four children. On finishing the race, they are presented with a sweet pretzel. In heraldry, the city seal of Nörten dates from around 1550 and depicts two facing lions holding a pretzel at the center.
The lye pretzel is the theme for a number of festivals in Germany. The city of Speyer prides itself to be the "pretzel town", and around the second weekend of July, from Friday to Tuesday, it holds an annual funfair and festival called "Brezelfest", which is the largest beer festival in the Upper Rhine region, and attracts around 300,000 visitors. The festival includes a parade with over 100 bands, floats, and clubs participating from the whole region, and 22,000 pretzels are thrown among the crowds. On the market square of Speyer, there is a fountain with a statue of a boy selling pretzels. The pretzel booths on the main street are permanently installed and were specially designed when the whole downtown area was redone for the 100th anniversary. One-day pretzel fests and markets in other German towns are in Kirchhellen, a borough of Bottrop, or in Kornwestheim. In 2003 and 2004, "Peace Pretzels" were baked for a UNICEF charity event and other charity purposes in Munich. Instead of the typical pretzel loop, they were made in the similar shape of a peace symbol.
United States
In the late 18th century, southern German and Swiss German immigrants introduced the pretzel to North America. The immigrants became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, and in time, many handmade pretzel bakeries populated the central Pennsylvania countryside, and the pretzel's popularity spread.File:Union Square Greenmarket, Manhattan, New York City.jpg|thumb|right|A street vendor in Union Square, New York City selling pretzels
In the 20th century, soft pretzels became popular in other regions of the United States. Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York became renowned for their soft pretzels. The key to success was the introduction of the new mass production methods of the industrialized age, which increased the availability and quantity, and the opening up of multiple points of distribution at schools, convenience and grocery stores, and entertainment venues such as movie theaters, arenas, concert halls, and sport stadiums. Prior to that, street vendors used to sell pretzels on street corners in wooden glass-enclosed cases.
In the U.S., pretzels come in many varieties of flavors and coatings, such as yogurt, chocolate, strawberry, mustard, cinnamon sugar, cheese and others, and chocolate-covered hard pretzels are popular around Christmas time and given as gifts. The variety of shapes and sizes became a contest of imagination in the marketing of the pretzels taste. During the 1900s, people in Philadelphia would use the small slender pretzel stick as a common accompaniment to ice cream or would crumble pretzels as a topping. This combination of cold sweet and salty taste was very popular for many years. Eventually, this led to the development of an ice cream cone tasting like a pretzel. More recently Mars, Incorporated manufactures M&M's with a small spherical pretzel covered in milk chocolate and candy coated in all of the standard M&M's colors, called "Pretzel M&M's". Soft pretzels are frequently sold in shopping malls, with notable chains including Auntie Anne's and Wetzel's Pretzels/Pretzel Time.