The Pretzel Facts

 

When German settlers first began to settle in America in the 1700s, they carried the pretzel with them. The Bavarians and other Southern Germans had eaten pretzels for hundreds of years. Often they ate pretzels as a side dish to the main course; at other occasions they ate sweet pretzels for dessert. In Swabia, an area in southwestern Germany, the bakery signs still have gilded pretzels hanging over the entrance.

 

Most of these settlers arrived in the Susquehanna Valley of Pennsylvania, where they were known as the Dutch Pennsylvania (Dutch is the corruption of "Deutsch," the German word for "German"). The pretzel quickly became the mainstay of local bakeries. Italian bakers in Philadelphia also knew how to make them, and peddlers hawking soft cart pretzels became a common sight on city streets.

 

Hard pretzels enclosed in an airtight container had a long shelf life, could be delivered virtually anywhere, and could be placed in attractive tin containers on store shelves. It wasn't long before the rest of the area followed Sturgis' example, and Pennsylvania became the city of the nation. Today, Americans eat a lot more hard pretzels than soft ones, and more than 80 percent of hard pretzels are already made in Pennsylvania.

 

Pretzels get their distinct and shiny texture from being coated in a mild solution of lye before being cooked. Lye is a caustic soda, but something to think about – the baking process turns the lye to a stable carbonate. The lee improves what is called the Maillard reaction, a chemical reaction that causes the protein to brown in the flour. It also gives pretzels their smooth surface texture.

 

 

While they are rising in market share, hard pretzels still sell potato chips at a broad margin. Yet fresh, fluffy pretzels have a little rebirth of their own.