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[[File:Krakowskie Precle Złote Tarasy.jpg|thumb|upright|A stand selling "Cracow pretzels" at the Golden Terraces shopping mall in Warsaw]]
OK, so this post isn't about holy breads – as in the Eucharist. It's about breads with holes. And I don't mean little mean pockets of air as in sourdough bread. I mean breads that are shaped like rings, wreaths or knots, with dough surrounding one or more holes. You know, bagels, pretzels and the like.
In a few shopping malls and other places in Warsaw you can find stands like the one pictured here, selling what the sign claims to be ''krakowskie precle'', or Cracow pretzels. Intriguingly, [http://krakowskieprecle.pl/o-firmie the company that distributes them in Warsaw] proudly boats that these "pretzels" are shipped each morning straight from Mr. Czaja's bakery in Cracow. But if we take a look at Mr. Grzegorz Czaja's bakery website, we'll see that what he bakes there is not pretzels, but something called ''obwarzanki'' (pronounced ''awb-vah-{{small|ZHAHN}}-kee''). It seems as though the ''obwarzanki'' magically turn into pretzels the moment they arrive in Warsaw! Can we chalk it up to merely yet another linguistic difference between Cracovian and Warsovian Polish? Or is there a more profound distinction between pretzels and ''obwarzanki''?
| rok = 2008
| strony = 7
}}</ref> or small, round, jaw-breaking double-baked biscuits used a army hardtack by Roman legionaries at least as early as the 4th century CE. Whether they were actually ring or rather dicsdisc-shaped is uncertain. The author of [http://pass-the-garum.blogspot.com/2014/10/bucellatum-roman-army-hardtack.html ''Pass the Garum'',] a great blog about ancient Roman foodways, reconstructed them as the latter, with only little holes punched with a needle to let air and steam escape during baking. Another hypothesis, also mentioned by Ms. Balinska, says that the ''buccellatum'' was the ancestor of the round communion wafer used by Christians in the sacrament of the EucharystEucharist.
[[File:Martwa natura z ciambellami.JPG|thumb|upright=.6|Cristoforo Munari (1667–1720), ''Still life with a watermelon and ciambelle'']]
But what's so great about the ring shape after all? Why not a ball or a disc, but a torus, which takes a great deal more skill to form? Well, this shape has two advantages. First, a holey bread has only a slightly smaller volume with a much larger surface than a whole bread of comparable size (I'm leaving the proof by calculating the surface areas and volumes of a torus and an ellipsoid as an exercise for the Reader). And a larger surface area allows the heat to spread more evenly inside the dough during the thermal treatment (boiling or baking). Secondly, a holey bread is easier to transport, especially for a street vendor who can just put his ''taralli'' on a string or a stick and walk with them in the street. And the customers could even wear it like a bracelet, if they didn't eat it right away.
Dry ''taralli'' were used in a similar way the ancient ''buccellata'' in that they could be stored for up to half a year and then eaten after being dunked in wine for softening. Were these toroidal ''taralli'' inspired by the Arab ''ka'ak'', brought by Levantine sailor to the port of Puglia? Quite possibly, but we don't know that for sure. Whaterver Whatever the case, soon after the ''taralli'' had appeared in southern Italy, similar breads were being made in the north. They bore a plethora of regional names, including ''bricuocoli, ciaramilie, pane del marinaio, mescuotte, ciambelle, ciambelloni, braciatelle, brazzatelle'' and ''brasadèle''<ref>{{Cyt
| tytuł = The Oxford Companion to Italian Food
| nazwisko r = Riley
{{Cytat
| „"'''Le''' bretzel” to jest toś cośbretzel" is this little unspeakable, czego nie da się ani nazwać, ani zrozumieć, ani strawić, sprzedawane paczkami w supermarketach po drugiej stronie Wogezówincongruous and indigestible thing sold by packets in the supermarkets across the Vosges. „"'''La''' bretzel” to przepyszny alzacki specjałbretzel" is a succulent Alsatian speciality.
| oryg = ‘Le’ bretzel est cette petite chose innommable, incongrue et indigeste, vendue outre-Vosges par paquets dans les supermarchés. ‘La’ bretzel est une spécialité alsacienne succulente.
| źródło = {{Cyt
| wydawca = Overblog
| rok = 2013
}}, tłum. własne own translation }}
[[File:Salomon przy stole.jpg|thumb|left|Król Salomon jedzący rybę z preclami według ''Hortus deliciarum'' Herrady z Landsbergu (1185)]]
