The History of the
we are with a lot of foods the exact origin of the pretzel is unknown.
Pretzel shape worked its way into the culture not only as a reward but
as a symbol of Good Luck and prosperity. I suppose it had the same effect
as a logo did appearing in festivals and celebrations, as well as a quick
snack available from street corner vendors.
There are pictures
of pretzels in paintings that help us to find how old their existence
really is. Here is a one of the more famous pictures in which we find
pretzels, called "The f ight between
carnival and lent"
by Pieter Bruegel in 1559. You can see the pretzels in the lower right
So how did the hard pretzel spring into existence? Skip ahead to late seventeenth century Pennsylvania. A baker's helper fell asleep tending pretzels baking in the hearth. When he awoke, the flames had died, he believed the pretzels hadn't cooked long enough and started the fire up again. When the Master Baker came in, he was furious that an entire batch of pretzels wasn't fit to eat. In the process of throwing them out, he tasted one and realized he was on to something big! Not only did he like the taste of these delicious crunchy morsels but realized due to the moisture being baked entirely out, that freshness was preserved and they would keep longer to sell.
It was the immigrants from these countries who brought the "bretzel" to our shores during the 1800's, later becoming known as the "pretzel". Some believe that the pretzel recipe was brought over on the mayflower and they were made and sold to the Indians who loved them.
The first commercial pretzel bakery was established in the town of Lititz in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania by Julius Sturgis in 1861. The modern age of pretzel making began in 1935 when the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company first introduced the automatic pretzel twisting machine. Prior to that, most commercial pretzels were actually shaped by a cracker-cutting machine, then placed on baking pans and put into the baking ovens by hand. This innovation made pretzels available to people in all parts of the country, and helped the fledgling industry grow...
Some more modern bizarre pretzel facts include these noteworthy items: Largest pretzel ever baked:40 lbs, 5-feet across, by Joe Nacchio of Federal Baking, Philadelphia, PA; Pretzels in the movies: 20 lb., 4’ pretzel in “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World”—same baker; Pretzel capitol of the world: Reading, PA., where one plant can package over 10 million pretzels per day!
Annual pretzel sales top $180 million and are the second most popular snack, right behind potato chips and just in front of popcorn.
Source: Snack Food Association
History of the Bavarian Pretzel (Brezel)
The Bavarian Pretzel has a very dark carmel crust
Typical Bavarian pretzels appear to be the unintended creation of a Munich baker named Anton Nepomuk Pfannenbrenner. Good old Anton Nepomuk was in the employ of the Königliches Kaffehaus (Royal Coffee House), where he used to make sweet pretzels. One fateful winter day, on February 11, 1839, he absent-mindedly mistook a soda-lye solution for the usual sugar syrup and glazed his pretzels with it. Incredibly, the Kaffeehaus customers, who were otherwise used to sweeter stuff, liked the improbable concoction, and thus was born the Bavarian pretzel. The name pretzel, incidentally, appears to be a derivative of the Latin word bracchium (arm), an allusion to the fact that a pretzel looks much like a pair of folded arms
Some Pretzel Recipes
LINKS TO PRETZEL HISTORY
This is from the oldest pretzel factory in
the United States.
© 1998-07 The Kitchen Project
Last updated July 21, 2008