Food Favorites - AIB International

Food Favorites
Potato chips may be America’s number
one salty snack, but few foods have as
entertaining and eventful a past as the
beloved pretzel. By Galen Haar
S
ome foods have been around for a long time and
are so common we rarely think about their history. The pretzel is one of these foods. So what
exactly is a pretzel and how did it come to be? I did a
bit of research to answer questions about this ancient
food.
Wikipedia defines a pretzel as: “...a bread pastry
of Medieval European (probably Italian and German)
origin that has the shape of a three looped knot or twisted
braid. Pretzels are either soft or hard. Hard pretzels have
evolved into a variety of shapes from knotted loops to straight
‘pretzel sticks’ (called Salzstangen in German, Ropi in Hungarian). The pretzel dough is made from wheat flour, water, sugar
and yeast, sprinkled with coarse salt. Pretzels are typically glazed
with lye and salted. Pretzels can be found in a variety of shapes
and sizes. Traditional soft pretzels are about the size of a
hand. Most hard pretzels are only 2-3 mm thick. Hard
pretzels which are 0.8-1.5 cm thick are called Bavarian
pretzels.”
The soft pretzel emerged about 1,400 years ago
(around 610 AD). The story says it was created by monks
as a way to use leftover unleavened communion bread
dough. It is believed the monks originally gave pretzels
as treats to children who had successfully learned their
prayers. In Latin, the pretzel was called a pretiola which
means “little reward.” The typical three-loop shape may have
been created as a way to show how the holy trinity (Father,
Son and Holy Spirit) interact and overlap in Christian theol6 September/october 2009 AIB UPDATE ogy. It also has been proposed that this shape represented the
typical posture of people in prayer at that time in history (arms
crossed over their chest with head bowed). Eventually, the pretzel
shape became a symbol of good luck, long life and good health
throughout Europe.
During a siege of the city of Vienna in 1510, the Turks tried
to enter the city at night by digging a tunnel under the walls.
However, some pretzel bakers heard the sounds of the digging
and alerted the city’s residents, who attacked the Turks in the
tunnels and won the battle. As a reward, the king created a
special coat of arms for the bakers, a charging lion and a pretzel.
This became the baker’s emblem and is still used today. The
pretzel may also be responsible for the wedding phrase “tying
the knot.” A tradition in Switzerland depicted the “marriage
knot” as a pretzel. During the ceremony, the new couple would
make a wish and break the pretzel, eating the pieces to signify
their oneness.
During the Middle Ages Christians were forbidden to prepare
foods that contained eggs, milk, butter and lard during the
season of Lent. This tradition made the pretzel a popular
pre-Easter food. It is unclear how the pretzel made
it to the New World, but rumor says it came over
with Christopher Columbus.
The pretzel remained a soft-dough product
until sometime during the 17th century when
a baker’s helper in Pennsylvania fell asleep and
allowed the pretzels to bake too long. While preparing to discard
the overcooked pretzels and fervently berating his apprentice,
the master baker took a bite of the hard pretzels and realized
he may have a whole new opportunity to pursue. From there,
the pretzel industry continued to grow and diversify. However,
production technology remained unchanged and largely manual
for many decades.
Eventually, pretzel twisting machines emerged. Then in
1978, pretzel technology moved from machine-twisting to diecut production. The first machine to produce soft pretzels was
created that year by Federal Baking Company in Philadelphia,
Pa. Labor had become too expensive and workers too hard to
find, so machines that could produce pretzels at a rate of seven
per second were designed. Today, the market for pretzels is about
$180,000,000 annually, and pretzels are the second most popular
salty snack, positioned between potato chips (#1) and popcorn
(#3). Pretzels have evolved to include products with flavors and
coatings and are used in many ways. You may find pretzels used
as the rod on which cotton candy is spun, as a topping on ice
cream, as an ingredient in desserts and salads, and as a roll for
a sandwich.
So the next time you eat a pretzel, think about its long,
eventful history and know that you are continuing a tradition
that has been passed on for many generations. AIB
The author is a Food Safety Auditor, AIB International.
• Pretzels without salt are called baldies.
• An 1859 parade in New Orleans featured
a float carrying a fictional pretzel-baking
machine.
• An average pretzel has 3.5 grams of fat and
260 calories.
• German kids wear pretzels around their
neck for good luck on New Year’s.
• Pretzels top some Christmas trees in
Austria.
• A page in the prayer book used by Catharine of Cleves depicts St. Bartholomew
surrounded by pretzels, which were
thought to bring good luck, prosperity
and spiritual wholeness.
• The town of Lititz, Pa., is thought
to be the birthplace of the American
pretzel.
• A Pretzel Museum was opened in Phila-
delphia, Pa., in 1993.
• The largest recorded
pretzel was baked in
1963 in Philadelphia
weighed 40 pounds,
and was 5 feet across.
• In 2003, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell declared April 26 “National
Pretzel Day” to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state’s history
and economy.
• On January 13, 2002, a pretzel nearly
changed history when President George W.
Bush choked on one of the snacks while
watching TV alone. The President reportedly passed out and fell to the floor. Somehow, the pretzel was dislodged during the
fall and the President lived to joke with
reporters about the incident the next day.
©iStockphoto.com/chefbenjamin
september/october 2009 AIB UPDATE
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