Pretzels?

[Claude Mathis]

One more personal comment and the whole thread goes.

Who wants to be the one to ruin it for everyone?

 

[George]

Too late to worry about that.

Spence

 

[coloradoclyde]

One more personal comment and the whole thread goes.

Who wants to be the one to ruin it for everyone?

Dang it!....I see some posts have already been deleted.....who keeps mucking up my topic about pretzels.... All I wanted was to learn more about the history pretzels....and their significance in the 18th century an more....And maybe educate myself and some others....#@%$?... :cursing:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I know more about pretzels now than I did before I started this topic...( insert expletives here)

 

[Wes/Tex]

Me too! All you never wanted to know about pretzels! :wink: With my German background, I got excited but try as I might at looking through all my old cookbooks (yeah, collect them too) I can't find a single recipe or even reference to them. Ay Caramba! (not German)!! :haha:

 

[zimmerstutzen]

could be the reason why there are no recipes is that it was something done with left over dough. Not quite enough for a loaf. My Grandmother, PA Dutch, made great little snacks with left over pie dough. It is something her mother always did and passed down to her girls. My grandmother did not even have a name for them. Pie crust, a dab of butter, brown sugar and cinnamon rolled over then baked on a cookie sheet. There is a similar treat made by some Polish bakeries in the area.

I did find a recipe for "Jumbals" From the Virginia Housewife (1831), written by Mrs. Mary Randolph, "Put one pound of nice sugar into two pounds of flour, add pounded spice of any kind, and pass them through a seive; beat four eggs, pour them on with three quarters of a pound of melted butter, knead all well together, and bake them. "

There is no description of using yeast, or letting it rise, no reference to shape or even whether it needs to be baked in a pan, on tin or on the floor of the oven like a loaf of bread. The book does make reference to baking rolls on a tin. There is no recipe for anything like pretzels, but there is little reference to anything that sounds German.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I got excited but try as I might at looking through all my old cookbooks (yeah, collect them too) I can't find a single recipe or even reference to them. Ay Caramba! (not German)!! :haha:

Your collection is grossly incomplete then....I have many books with pretzel recipes in them.
You have to take into account, the publisher, location, and date.

 

[fleener]

you guys ever think that what you are calling pretzels in all of those picture are really kringla?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E3E2nJTt.../ogy6WzG8FFw/s1600/Ft.+Dodge,+Kringla+018.jpg

Fleener

 

[coloradoclyde]

Rolls were also dipped in lye before cooking....known as Laugengebäck (lye bread) or laugenbrötchen (lye bun)

 

[coloradoclyde]

you guys ever think that what you are calling pretzels in all of those picture are really kringla?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E3E2nJTt.../ogy6WzG8FFw/s1600/Ft.+Dodge,+Kringla+018.jpg

Fleener

No.!...
Because, you don't dip sugar cookies in lye. Also, many pictures show the pretzels hanging, that and their sheer size, could only be done with a soft dough....Sugar cookies would break too easily.

 

[fleener]

Easy CC, I was not being serious with my question. I should of added one of those little smiley faces.

fleener

 

[Nativearizonan]

you guys ever think that what you are calling pretzels in all of those picture are really kringla?
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_E3E2nJTt.../ogy6WzG8FFw/s1600/Ft.+Dodge,+Kringla+018.jpg

Fleener

Kringle:

That looks a bitt like the lumps around the fish in the Vergilius Romanus picture of "The Feast", I posted earlier:

BTW, Kringles can be unsweet and salted:

In Denmark, kringle denotes the pretzel-like knotted shape rather than the pretzel pastry type. Kringler may be made from puff pastry (like Danish pastry) or yeast dough, filled with remonce or marzipan and raisins, sprinkled with coarse sugar, nut flakes or icing.

Other types of kringle in Scandinavia includes saltkringler, which are small salty kringler - the Scandinavian equivalent of pretzels -, and kommenskringler which are half-hand-sized breads in the kringle shape, made from unsweetened yeast dough spiced with caraway seeds. Sukkerkringler are similar, sweet pretzels, sprinkled with sugar instead of caraway. Smørkringler are large crusty and sweet pretzels with a spread of butter on the backside.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kringle

 

[Nativearizonan]

Also notice on the wikipedia link I just posted, if you scroll down there is picture with the caption:

In Denmark, the official kringle emblem of the baker's guild is topped with a royal crown. Here from a modern bakery shop in Ribe.

The "Official Kringle Emblem" looks just like the old German baker's emblem shown in one of CC's pictures, of Frederick the Great giving pretzels to the poor; with a crown added on top.

 

[coloradoclyde]

When the name of something in another language is defined by calling it a pretzel....It's a pretzel.
A rose by any other name.... :haha:

The multitude of variants of pretzels in other countries and with other names only attest to the age of the pretzel and the popularity of the shape.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

All this pretzel talk and an hour until Aunt Annies' opens.

In the myriad of flour based baked goods, there seems to be an infinite variety, which each culture sharing similarities. We talk of things being sweet or salty and yet some can be both at the same time. One of the most amazing baked goods I ever had came from a bakery in Hyattsville Maryland and was called Russian black bread. At first it looked like very dark pumpernickle bread, but it had orange zest, cocoa and bits of sausage and other things in it. Both savory and sweet at the same time. A slice was like a sandwich and dessert all at once. Had a neighbor from far West virginia that made biscuits with cooked sausage bits in the biscuit dough. The sausage grease was the shortening/lard for the recipe. The biscuits were great, but I would not argue that she got the idea from the Russians.

In the evolution of food, I am sure there has been substantial borrowing from adjacent peoples as well as independent development of similar items and ideas. A pretzel like baked item has probably been around for at least a thousand years. Whether sweet or salty, soft or hard.

I remember as a toddler seeing a guy carrying a pole with a tv antenna like cross piece that was hung full of soft pretzels. he could hold them above the crowd as advertising as he made his way through a crowd selling pretzels. Having them hanging like that is a bit similar to one of those old paintings having the pretzels hanging.

 

[Nativearizonan]

All this pretzel talk and an hour until Aunt Annies' opens.

In the myriad of flour based baked goods, there seems to be an infinite variety, which each culture sharing similarities. We talk of things being sweet or salty and yet some can be both at the same time. One of the most amazing baked goods I ever had came from a bakery in Hyattsville Maryland and was called Russian black bread. At first it looked like very dark pumpernickle bread, but it had orange zest, cocoa and bits of sausage and other things in it. Both savory and sweet at the same time. A slice was like a sandwich and dessert all at once. Had a neighbor from far West virginia that made biscuits with cooked sausage bits in the biscuit dough. The sausage grease was the shortening/lard for the recipe. The biscuits were great, but I would not argue that she got the idea from the Russians.

In the evolution of food, I am sure there has been substantial borrowing from adjacent peoples as well as independent development of similar items and ideas. A pretzel like baked item has probably been around for at least a thousand years. Whether sweet or salty, soft or hard.

I remember as a toddler seeing a guy carrying a pole with a tv antenna like cross piece that was hung full of soft pretzels. he could hold them above the crowd as advertising as he made his way through a crowd selling pretzels. Having them hanging like that is a bit similar to one of those old paintings having the pretzels hanging.

Sounds a lot like crackling biscuits. Them and crackling bread are Southern favorites. Hmmm. Crackling Pretzels? That sounds good.

 

[coloradoclyde]

I remember as a toddler seeing a guy carrying a pole with a tv antenna like cross piece that was hung full of soft pretzels. he could hold them above the crowd as advertising as he made his way through a crowd selling pretzels. Having them hanging like that is a bit similar to one of those old paintings having the pretzels hanging.

I've come across more than one picture and reference to pretzels being sold that way....

I wonder if the pole has a special name. :hmm:

 

[NeilMacleod]

Maybe I missed it in the thread but what I found they were commonly used for is celebrating tieing the knot as in being married. The other popular use was that they are easy to carry on a pole.
http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/the-pretzel-a-twisted-history

 

[coloradoclyde]

Here is a picture from the 1600s with a pretzel hanger, like so many I see....

But, what really caught my eye was what appears to be bread bowls. :shocked2: The unusual elongated loaf standing in the middle is also unusual. :hmm:

 

[NeilMacleod]

bread bowls were not uncommon, that's were you get the expression "The Upper Crust" the peasants got the lower part.

 

[Black Hand]

IIRC, Loaves similar to the elongated one leaning against the house are made for various festivals in Europe.