The other evening Thumper and I were talking about food, and traditional soft pretzels came up. As you might know, the pretzel originated in Germany and is a local delicacy that has made it into our culture as well. What almost always gets lost in such an internationalization process, with all foods, is the original recipe (just look at Chinese food here; it’s americanized and not the same as they eat in China). Same goes for the pretzel, which I thought I’d show you a few things about that you might not have known yet.

And a post about the pretzel is also a very nice addition to my last week’s post about my Top 10 exotic foods for this winter.

Thumper is from Germany. Prior to meeting him, I had been to Germany three times; twice in Munich, where I do remember eating a soft pretzel. Now that of course was a bavarian pretzel, which only represents a part of the variety of pretzels you can get in Germany.

The Pretzel

Thinking back to when I was in Munich some time ago, I remember eating a soft pretzel, slathered in butter, with weisswurt that I had a hard time looking at. After slicing, the casing of the sausage opened. I covered it in a sweet mustard, which was not bad at all.

In Bavaria, the German weisswurt is usually served for breakfast and doesn’t have preservatives added. So you know what you are eating.

Photo by PabloBM

Soft Pretzels

Soft pretzels are sold everywhere here in the States. Most cities have street vendors selling soft pretzels, and you can get them at the food courts in malls. But are American pretzels the same as the original German pretzel?

So when Thumper and I were talking about them, and I said “yes I know and I like pretzels”, he laughed and said, but which pretzel do you like? The soft pretzel or the hard pretzel?

He then asked me if I knew the difference between a Bavarian pretzel and a Swabian pretzel.

Emm… Right.

I have to confess here,

I started to brag about making pretzels at home. I am sure he would like mine but he is in doubt.

I made soft pretzels at home a few times. This was a while back, but I remember my recipe consisted of using a baking soda hot bath and an egg white wash brushed on, before sprinkling on the kosher salt and baking them.

My technique was nothing close to the way he explained to me. He began to tell me a story. One he was told as a small boy about the invention of the Swabian pretzel. He also said that the origin of the pretzel is not 100% clear - there are a lot of legends about its invention - so we then found ourselves doing some research on the computer. What can I say, there are so many stories about the origin of the pretzel… I don’t know where to start. Maybe I can get him to write a little something up for my little blog here.

The Secret Soft Pretzel Ingredient: Lye

Of course there is only one way how to make a soft pretzel. Thumper had to show me that his favorite pretzel is dipped in lye water before baking.

Lye. Yes, pretzel lye, but not exactly what we use to clean our plumbing drains with. Lye water for cooking is pretty hard to find here in the US (apparently also in Germany). So where to buy lye? We found it was recommended to find a pretzel bakery that uses it, and ask to buy it from there.

The chemical reaction of the lye water with the pretzel dough is truly amazing. It caramelizes the surface, making it more crunchy. At the same time, using the lye bath also makes the shaping of the pretzel a more difficult technique. It is important to have the middle be thicker and the ends thinner. This results in a soft center, which is how a soft pretzel should be like both in Swabia and in Bavaria.

How to make a Swabian Pretzel

We found this page with step by step instructions when using a lye bath to make soft pretzels or lye rolls. You basically make the dough the same way, but before adding the pretzel salt, you dip the formed pretzel in to a bath of lye and water. Very little lye is needed. Only 3 tablespoons per liter of water. You then stir the mixture until the lye dissolves, which is about 10 minutes with a stainless steel spoon. And rubber gloves. And eye goggles.

Anyway, Thumper and I are excited about making some soft pretzels at home with the lye water. In addition to that, I still will try Bunny’s soft pretzel recipe on him. I want to post it here later this week.

And as mentioned above, as for the origin of the pretzel, I will ask Thumper to contribute something to my little blog for business women. I think it’s a good idea that he writes about the pretzel for starters.