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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 pockets of air as in sourdough bread. I mean breads that are shaped like rings, wreaths or knots, with the 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''?

"Pretzels, "bagels" and "''obwarzanki''" are all used by both tourists and native Cracovians to refer to the specifically Cracovian bread which "takes the form of an oval with a hole in the middle" and whose "surface is formed by strands of dough twisted into a spiral".<ref>Description of the product according to: [https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX:52010XC0216(01) Publication of an application pursuant to Article 6(2) of Council Regulation (EC) No 510/2006 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin for agricultural products and foodstuffs (2010/C 38/08), EC No: PL-PGI-005-0674,] Official Journal of the European Union</ref> Although unique to Cracow, it nonetheless belongs to the great diverse family of holey breads. So let's take a look at the bigger picture now.

Bagels, pretzels and ''obwarzanki'' are similar enough to each other as to suggest a common origin. According to Ms. Maria Balinska, who wrote a book on the history of bagels, holey breads date back all the way to ancient Rome. She believes the ancestor of all (or almost that all) such bread products to be descend from the ''buccellata'',<ref>{{Cyt

}}</ref> or small, round, jaw-breaking double-baked biscuits used a as army hardtack by Roman legionaries at least as early as the 4th century CE. Whether they were actually ring or rather disc-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 Eucharist.

Another bread with a long history , which, this time for sure, is made in the shape of elongated rings , is the Middle Eastern ''ka'ak''. These breads are get a mention in the Talmud,<ref>Balinska, ''op. cit.'', p. 7</ref> so they must have been known at least as eary as the 6th century CE. Unlike the overly simple ''buccellatum'', made only of flour, salt and butter, ''ka'ak'' are made from leavened dough. What's interesting is that the leavening agent used here is not yeast, but fermented chickpea.<ref>{{Cyt

}}</ref> ''Ka'ak'', generously Generously sprinkled with sesame seeds before baking, ''ka'ak'' may be still purchased in the streets of Arab and Israeli cities.

Let's go back the Apennine Peninsula. It was in the port town of Puglia (pronounced ''{{small|POOL}}-yah) in what is now southern Italy that ''taralli'' were being boiled and baked as early as the 14th century. That's right, it's a kind of bread that is first boiled and only then baked. Why? Because when the starch on the surface of the dough comes into contact with boiling water, it gets gelatinized, which results in giving the ''tarallo'' its shiny and crunchy crust. The stiffened crust also prevents the dough from rising further during baking, which helps to keep the breads bread in shape. And this, in turn, means that you can make bigger ring-shaped breads than you could without boiling them first.<ref>Balinska, ''op. cit.'', s. 2–6</ref> Clever, huh?

But Great, but what's so great about the deal with the ring shape after allin the first place? Why not a ball or a disc, but a torus, which takes a great deal a lot 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 (somehow it's usually been men) ''taralli'' on a string or a stick and walk with peddle them in the street. And the customers could even wear it their ''tarallo'' like a bracelet, if they didn't eat it right away.

Dry ''taralli'' were used in a similar way as 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 sailors to the port of Puglia? Quite possibly, but we don't know that for sure. 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

}}</ref> (the latter three are reminiscent of ''"braccialetto"'', the Italian word for "bracelet"; ultimately, both ''"braciatella"'' and ''"braccialetto"'' derive from Latin ''"bracchium"'', meaning "arm").

 == Precle Pretzels ==[[File:Brezel.png|thumb|upright=.6|Jak mówi się na precle i&nbsp;precelki w&nbsp;różnych dialektach języka niemieckiegoWhat pretzels (the large soft oness and the small hard ones) are called in various dialects of German]]Włoskie The Italian "''la brazzatella'' brzmi już całkiem podobnie do niemieckiego " sounds quite similar to the German ''"die Brezel"''… Albo Or is it ''das "des Brezel"''? A&nbsp;może Or ''der "das Brezel"''? Wśród osób niemieckojęzycznych nie ma zgody, co do tego, czy to jest ta, German speakers can't agree as to, czy ten precelthe grammatical gender of their pretzels. Ani co do tego, czy pierwsze „e” w&nbsp;tym słowie jest długie, czy krótkie Nor is there agreement about whether the first "e" in this word is long or short (as in ''"der/die/das Bretzel"''). Są też tacyThere are also those, głównie w&nbsp;Bawarii i&nbsp;w Austriimostly in Bavaria and Austria, którzy mówią who call it ''"die Brezen"'' (ewentualnie or ''"der Brezen"''). Albo Or even ''"die Brezg"'', jak mawiają na pograniczu bawarskoas they say along the Bavarian-szwabskimSwabian border.<ref> {{Cyt

}}</ref> Jest natomiast zgoda co What they all do kształtu: nie pierścieńagree on is the pretzel's shape. Not a ring, nie wieniecnot a wreath, ale węzeł spleciony jakby z&nbsp;dwóch szóstek skierowanych do siebie brzuszkamibut a knot which looks like two sixes conjoined at their bellies, co daje nie jednąwith not one, ale aż trzy dziurkibut three holes.

Rodzaj gramatyczny precla ma znaczenie również we FrancjiThe pretzel's grammatical gender is also an important issue in France, allowing Alsatians to tell an authentic Alsatian pretzel from a fake non-Alsatian one. Mieszkańcom Alzacji pozwala odróżnić alzacki autentyk od pozaalzackiej podróby. Tak przynajmniej twierdzi pewien alzacki blogerOr so at least claims one Alsatian blogger:

[[File:Salomon przy stole.jpg|thumb|left|Król Salomon jedzący rybę z&nbsp;preclami według King Solomon enjoying a meal of fish and pretzels according to ''Hortus deliciarumDeliciarum'' Herrady z&nbsp;Landsbergu by Herrad of Landsberg (1185)]]Tenże bloger dowodzi teżThe same blogger proves that pretzels have been known in Alsace since at least the 13th century, że precle były znane w&nbsp;Alzacji już XII&nbsp;w., bowiem ich wizerunki można odnaleźć w&nbsp;becuase you can find their images in ''Hortus Deliciarum'' (''Ogrodzie RozkoszyGarden of Delights''), czyli w&nbsp;czymś w&nbsp;rodzaju średniowiecznej encyklopedii ilustrowaneja kind of medieval illustrated encyclopedia. Jej autorką jest Herrada z&nbsp;LandsberguIt was created by Herrad of Landberg, przeorysza klasztoru na górze śwan abbess of the convent on Mount Saint Odile in the eastern Vosges. Otylii we wschodnich WogezachYou can see breads twisted into the unmistakeable pretzel shape in three illuminations depicting Biblical figures seated at a table. Wypieki o&nbsp;charakterystycznym preclowatym kształcie pojawiają się w&nbsp;What interesting is that in all three pictures the pretzels lie right next to fish. What might pretzels have to do with fish? Well, neither of them contains any ingredients of land-animal origin (pretzel dough containes no eggs or butter), which means they may safely consumed during a period of Catholic fast. Along with fish, the pretzel used to be one of the chief symbols of Lent, which is best illustrated by Pietera Brueghel's famous painting, ''OgrodzieThe Fight Between Carnival and Lent'' na trzech iluminacjach przedstawiających siedzące przy stole postaci biblijne. Co ciekawe, na wszystkich trzech obrazkach precle leżą na stole obok ryby.