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Modern Polish cuisine is often described as combining two historical strains: on the one hand, the peasant cuisine, the poor, simple fare based on local and readily available ingredients; and on the other, the lordly cuisine of the nobility, sumptuous, abundant, exotic and following the rule, "pawn yourself, but show yourself". This view is somewhat oversimplified, though. Firstly, what people ate and drank had more to do with their actual income than the estate they were born into (for example, a relatively well-to-do peasant could eat just as well as a medium-income nobleman). And secondly, believe it or not, there were other social groups in Poland than just the peasantry and the nobility. Polish townsfolk, for instance, used to eat too, but they tend to be forgotten when historical Polish cuisine is being discussed. One reason for this may be that Polish towns were mostly populated by ethnic Germans and Jews, so their culinary heritage hasn't been included in the canon of ethnic Polish cuisine, which is mostly rural as a result. But there are at least two domains in which the culinary legacy of Polish towns has survived; these are beer brewing and bread baking. Sure, breweries and bakeries existed in the countryside as well, but it was the urban ones that were famous throughout the nation. The importance of urban bakers is still reflected today in the popularity of Poznań crescent rolls, Toruń gingerbread and yes, Cracovian ''obwarzanki''.
The oldest known mention of the latter comes from the 14th century. A royal-court book of accounts from the times of Queen Hedwig and King Vladislav Jagailo has the following expense recorded under the date 2 March 1394: "'''pro circulis obarzankij'', for the Queen – 1 groschone penny." The Latin word, ''"circulis"'', shows that the breads in question were already round at the time. And the Polish word (''"obwarzanki"'' in modern spelling), shows that they were parboiled (''obwarzane'') before baking. Just like pretzels, these were lean and luxury goods at the same time,<ref>Balinska, ''op. cit.'', s. 14</ref> which made them the perfect choice for the royal table during Shrovetide, which happened to include the 2 March that year. The Shrovetide was a pre-Lenten period of optional fasting. According to the ledger record from that particular day, Queen Hedwig, who would be later declared Saint Hedwig, ate 1 grosch one penny worth of ''obwarzanki'' and three grosches pence worth of salted herrings, while the visiting Duchess of Masovia, who wasn't that keen of fasting, was served chicken instead.<ref>{{ Cyt
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[[File:Warwick Goble, Sprzedawca simitów.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|A man peddling ''simitler'' in Istanbul, ca. 1906]]
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