A 12th century illustration of the banquet of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus in the Hortus deliciarum from the Alsace region (today France) may contain the earliest depiction of a pretzel. ![]() 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. The German name " Brezel" may derive also from Latin bracellus (a medieval term for 'bracelet'), or bracchiola ('little arms'). In Germany, there are stories that pretzels were the invention of desperate bakers held hostage by local dignitaries. Another source locates the invention in a monastery in southern France. He calls the strips of baked dough, folded to resemble arms crossing the chest, 'pretiola' ('little reward')". n Italian monk invents pretzels as a reward to children who learn their prayers. According to some narratives, as cited by several sources, including The History of Science and Technology, by Bryan Bunch and Alexander Hellemans, in 610 AD ". 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. What better way to celebrate National Pretzel Day than with an imaginative beer and pretzel pairing? Here are some combinations to get you started: honey mustard pretzels with Hefeweizen, bacon and cheddar pretzels with an India pale ale or peanut butter pretzel nuggets with Dogfish Head Namaste.Pretzel depicted at a banquet of Queen Esther and King Ahasuerus. With the rise of the craft beer movement, artisan pretzel shops are opening up to give customers the opportunity to pair creative brews with funky pretzels. Pretzels have long been thought of as the perfect accompaniment to beer. Today, the mall and airport stalwart has over 1,600 outlets around the world, with regional offerings like a banana pretzel (England), a seaweed pretzel (Singapore) and a date-flavored pretzel (Saudi Arabia). But fresh soft pretzels are having a little renaissance of their own.Īnne Beiler – more famously known as Auntie Anne – started her fresh pretzel business in 1988 in a Pennsylvania Dutch country farmers market. Though they’re growing in market share, hard pretzels still undersell potato chips by a wide margin. It also gives pretzels that slick surface texture. The lye enhances what’s called the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction that causes the protein in the flour to brown. Lye is a caustic soda, but not to worry – the baking process converts the lye into a safely consumed carbonate. Pretzels get their sheen and distinct texture from being dipped in a mild lye solution before being baked. In Swabia, a region in southwestern Germany, signs for bakeries still include gilded pretzels hanging over the door.Ī 1940 article about the Miller Pretzels plant in Allentown, Pa. ![]() Sometimes they ate pretzels as a side to a main dinner course other times, they munched on sweet pretzels for dessert. Bavarians and other southern Germans had been enjoying pretzels for hundreds of years. When German immigrants first started coming to America in the 1700s, they brought the pretzel with them. It took advances in manufacturing and tweaks to the recipe to make it the global snack it is today. For decades in the U.S., the pretzel wasn’t known outside of the mid-Atlantic states. As I point out in my Food and Society class, foods that are ubiquitous in certain pockets of the world don’t often spread beyond that region. It even has its own special day: April 26 is National Pretzel Day.īut not that long ago, the future of the pretzel didn’t look as shiny as its surface. It has its own emoji, comes in flavors like pumpkin spice, mocha and banana, and is now available as an aromatherapy scent. The pretzel, one of the fastest-growing snack foods in the world, recently crossed a billion dollars a year in sales.
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