National Pretzel Month

I find it extremely funny that the month I was born in is also National Pretzel Month because I love pretzels. Seriously, you can ask my Mama how funny it is, because I am always munching on pretzels. I think I may have inherited my pretzel love from my Aunt Jen, because she loves them too. Since finding out about October being pretzel month, I did a lot of reading on pretzels and found out they are most commonly known as German in origin, but actually an Italian Monk created them to reward children. It was surprising to me that it is German, but since finding that out it does make sense and now I notice how much the word pretzel sounds German.

A little bit about the Pretzel:
It is a bread pastry of German origin that has the shape of a three looped knot or twisted braid. You can get pretzels hard or soft. Hard pretzels, also called Bavarian pretzels, have a lot of different shapes you can buy and enjoy. Shapes like knotted loops to straight sticks to twisted rods.

The dough is made from wheat flour, water, sugar, yeast baked to a delicious snack sprinkled with coarse salt for flavor.

Big, soft, salty, unglazed pretzels are sold fresh in every bakery in Germany and are very popular. They are eaten alone, with yogurt or milk. Tiny hard glazed pretzels and pretzel sticks are sold in packages as snacks.

Soft pretzels are my favorite, but I never get them. I usually buy the Anderson brand. I like those better than the name brands, except for Mustard flavor that are put out by Snyder's! Like I mentioned up there, you can get pretzels flavored in so many things: mustard, chocolate, yogurt, strawberry, cheese, honey and so much more!
There are many brands you can buy too: Auntie Anne's, Snyder's, Rold Gold, Anderson's, Bachman's and more!

Do you know of any other pretzel brands? What is your favorite?

In Germany, pretzels are common mostly in Swabia, Bavaria and also in Switzerland, where they are sliced horizontally, buttered and sold as "Butterbrezn". In Bavaria, they eat the pretzel for breakfast with the Weisswurst sausage. Hungary calls pretzels, "perec".
In America, cities like Philadelphia, Chicago, and New York are famous for their soft pretzels. The state of Pennsylvania is a core area for hard pretzel history and production. Hard pretzels are more common in American because they can be mass produced, packaged and stored.

The United States pretzel industry is worth over $550 million and the average American eats about 1.5 pounds of pretzels per year. I must not be average, because I think I consume that much in a week! :) Southeastern Pennsylvania is considered the birthplace of the American pretzel industry because of its large German population and because it is home to many pretzel factories. The Philadelphian's consume more than 12x the national average of pretzels.
Here are some really neat facts and dates about the Pretzels of America:

1700 - The soft pretzel was part of the southern German and Swiss German tradition. The large immigrant population became the thrifty Pennsylvania Dutch[5] culture. The pretzels popularity spread and, in time, many handmade pretzel bakeries dotted the Pennsylvania Dutch landscape.

1861 - Sturgis bakery in Lititz, Pennsylvania, becomes the first commercial pretzel bakery in the US in 1850. Long wooden paddles, also known as “peels,” were used by the baker and his helper to place the pretzels on a stationary stone or brick hearth in the oven. A wider “peel” was then used to remove the pretzels from the oven.

1884 - Bachman pretzel bakery founded in Reading, Pennsylvania

1889 - The Anderson Pretzel Factory, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, calls itself the world's largest (65 tons daily). They have made pretzels by hand from 1889 to 1955 when machines were added. (Anderson Mini Twists -->)

1909 - Snyder's of Hanover founded in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

1922 - Federal Baking Company South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania was founded by Italian American Edmund Nacchio who followed his mother Maria Nacchio’s bakery pretzels that she began baking in 1922. It was continued by the various family members for four generations until it was sold to J&J Snack foods in the year 2000. Federal Baking lays claim for being the oldest baking soft pretzels in the city and made a major impact on the popular culture of Philadelphia comfort foods. This soft pretzel became synonymous with the Philadelphia soft pretzels. It was often slathered with yellow mustard estimated at a quart for each 200 pretzels sold. Street vendors for 80 years sold them on street corners in wooden glass enclosed cases or employed young boys to make extra cash who walked through the streets carrying baskets loaded with soft hot pretzels yelling aloud the phrase ’Fresh Pret-zels’ It became a staple Philadelphia food for snacking at school, at work or home and considered by most to be a quick meal.

1933 -The modern age of pretzel making began when the Reading Pretzel Machinery Company first introduced the automatic pretzel twisting machine. Prior to that, most commercial pretzels were actually shaped by a cracker-cutting machine, then placed on baking pans and put into the baking ovens by hand.

1946 -Tom Sturgis Pretzel Company founded by Marriot D. “Tom” Sturgis, grandson to Julius. The first bakery was located on Grape Street in Reading, where the current Reading Area Community College is located. The giant pretzel in the front of the building serving as a landmark.

1948 - At the bicentennial of the city, there were at least 15 in the Reading/Berks area. The key to the City of Reading even has a pretzel on it.

1960 - By 1960, total pretzel sales reached $92 million. In the mid-60's, pretzels were the fourth most popular snack in the US and the number one snack with beer. Pretzel technology moved from hand-twisting to machine-twisting to die-cut production.

1963 -Largest pretzel ever baked: It was 40 lbs, 5-feet across baked by Joseph Nacchio of Federal Baking, Philadelphia, PA. The largest pretzel in the movies at 20 lb., 4’ pretzel shown in the 1963 movie “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World” by the same baker.

1978 -First machine produced soft pretzel. Federal Baking Company used the original 1922 recipe but the last hand-twisted pretzel was made in 1978. Labor became too expensive and workers too hard to find. Machines were designed and at 7 pretzels a second, nearly 60,000 are extruded and baked daily. There was no change in taste or texture. The pretzel were of the same dimensions but denser and heavier (three and a half to four ounces) than the hand-twists sampled, and bears the unmistakable grainy machine surface. It also baked longer and hotter at 12 minutes. A wholewheat soft pretzel was attempted but harder to work in the machine and was discontinued.

1993 - The Pretzel Museum opens in Philadelphia by members of the Nacchio family dynasty to highlight the area’s preference for their more unique more rectangle shaped styled pretzels being baked soft and unlike the dominant more circular hard pretzels produced in western Pennsylvania. Champion hand pretzel twister Helen Hoff demostrated producing 57 pretzels per minute at this first museum.

2003 - Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell declares April 26th "National Pretzel Day" to acknowledge the importance of the pretzel to the state's history and economy. Congress declared it in 1983, but stopped the "commemorative day" practice in 1998. Pennsylvania produces 80% of the nation's pretzels.

I love pretzels! It was so neat to read all about my favorite snack too!

How do you eat your pretzels?

I can only eat pretzels if they are unbroken and in even numbers. I like the thick twists better than the sticks or rods.

What do you like to eat your pretzels with?

I like them with Ranch dressing. Some of my family likes mustard or honey mustard. Pretzels with pickles and monterey jack or muenster cheese is really great too!

What is your favorite pretzel?

The soft pretzels are my favorite. Flavored ones with mustard or cheese too!


Be looking next Wednesday for Auntie Anne's pretzel recipe, so you can make some old fashioned soft
pretzels at home!

In honor of National Pretzel Month, GGM is giving one of its readers a Auntie Anne's prize pack. Enter for the chance to win a $5 gift certificate to Auntie Anne's and set of cd cases.
Just leave a comment with your favorite thing to eat with pretzels or favorite memory of a time you were eating pretzels, and grab the graphic below for your blog! The giveaway will end October 18th.

<p align="center"><a href="http://www.growingingraceonline.com/2008/09/national-pretzel-month.html" target="_blank"><img height="141" border="0" width="187" src="http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm244/ggmstaff/Article%20Graphics/article%20PHOTOS/pretzelgiveway.png" border="0" /></a></p>