History of the Pretzel

The hard pretzel, sometimes called the party pretzel was another one of those mistake inventions. In the late 1600s, an apprentice in a Pennsylvania bakery fell asleep and accidentally overbaked his pretzels. Angry when he saw what happened, the master baker took a bite out of one of the overbaked pretzels. Much to his surprise and that of the apprentice, he loved the crunchy mistake.

As we go back in time searching for the appearance of the very first pretzel, we find that the further back we go in time, the harder it is to be sure of the information. It is agreed by most historians that an Italian monk, in 610 A.D., was baking unleavened bread for Lent and had some leftover dough. With this leftover dough he decided to make a treat for his students who had learned their prayers. He rolled out ropes of dough, twisted them to resemble arms crossed on the chest in prayer and baked them. The monk called his snacks pretiola, Latin for "little reward." Parents who tasted their children's classroom treats referred to them as brachiola, or "little arms." When pretiola arrived in Germany they were called bretzels. Today in English we call them pretzels.

Besides being a tasty snack and most likely the very first snack food invented, pretzels have some interesting history. Pretzels played a part in saving Vienna from the invading Turkish army in the 16th century. Wanting to spring a surprise attack, the Turkish army had been digging tunnels under the city walls of Vienna late at night. But Viennese pretzel bakers, who were up early baking pretzels so they would be fresh for the day, heard the digging and thwarted the attack. The Viennese king awarded the bakers with their own coat of arms featuring a lion holding a pretzel-shaped shield. Today in Austria many bakers proudly display the coat of arms outside their shops.

Another fun piece of trivia about the pretzel is the phrase "tying the knot". This comes from the Swiss, who use the pretzel in wedding ceremonies. A wood cutting dated from 1614 A.D. shows the pretzel being used to "tie the knot" between two royal families. With this began the long lasting tradition of wishing on a pretzel at weddings. The pretzel is held on one side by the bride and on the other by the groom. They then make a wish and pull, whoever pulls the bigger half of the pretzel will have their wish granted. It is thought that since both bride and groom were most likely wishing for happiness together, both will get their wish.

Today in America, both the soft and hard pretzel are enjoyed as a healthy snack food. While writing this I just realized that I can't think of a single person I know that doesn't like pretzels.

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/19208
http://recipes.howstuffworks.com