Soft, salty, & downright yummy, pretzels cuisine is a well-known snack in the whole of the United States, considered as a standard at movie theaters & sports stadiums, people often like to eat it with thick, yellow cheese.
The actual roots of the delicious pretzel food and cuisine surely lie across the Atlantic Ocean in the region of Southern Germany, where the Falafel history is quite rich, their serving varieties are seemingly awesome, and the traditions of this dish are deeply ingrained in the culture & cuisine.
Origin of Pretzels
A common origin story of the delicious pretzels is that they were cooked by a monk around 610 in the country of Italy. And according to The History of Science & Technology, the monk tried to bake strips of fresh dough and tried to make it into the shape of Pretzels.
Pretzels food dish made their way all across the Atlantic Ocean with German people who were later to be called as the Pennsylvania Dutch in the 18th century.
Many pretzel making bakeries popped up in the region of Pennsylvania around this time, & Pennsylvania continued to be the seat of American pretzel production & consumption; about 80% of pretzels made in the US are made in the region of Pennsylvania today.
While it is considered that American people eat two pounds of pretzels in a single year, pretzel consumption in the region of Philadelphia is about twelve pounds of delicious pretzels per person per year. Early pretzel made at that time was of the “soft” variety; and hard pretzels are considered as the invention of now.
However, contrary to this famous belief, hard pretzels did not actually originate in the 17th century when a chef fell asleep while he was trying to temper his fire, burning delicious pretzels to a crisper, as good of a pretzel story as that might have been. In 1861, a chef named Julius Sturgis made the first ever commercial pretzel bakery in the village of Lititz, Pennsylvania.
It is believed that his bakery factory was the first to make hard pretzels. These crunchy pretzels lasted much longer in an airtight environment than old soft pretzels did, allowing them to be much more sold in bakeries and stores.
How Pretzels came to US – Early American Pretzel History
As with the earliest origins of the tasty pretzel, it’s arrival in the US seems to be a mix of facts & stories. It is believed delicious pretzels were brought over to the US on the Mayflower in the early 1600s.
From an early court case in the US, where the defendant, named Carl Carmer & his wife, were accused of selling crispy pretzels to the Indian people (he was actually using the good flour for making pretzels & the leftovers for the making of bread).
Another story tells of a baker’s apprentice who actually dozed off while making soft pretzels. The fire in the hearth almost died down & he then awoke with a start, thinking in his mind that the crispy pretzels had not been cooked long enough.
He fired up his furnace again, baking pretzels twice as long as it needed, baking all the moisture left out of the tasty pretzels. When the head of all bakers found out, he was literally outraged at the hard “ruined” and crispy pretzels.
Recipe: How To Make Pretzels At Home
