Holey Breads: Difference between revisions
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== Pretzels == | == Pretzels == | ||
[[File:Brezel.png|thumb|upright=.6|What pretzels (the large soft | [[File:Brezel.png|thumb|upright=.6|What pretzels (the large soft ones and the small hard ones) are called in various dialects of German]] | ||
The Italian "''la brazzatella''" sounds quite similar to the German ''"die Brezel"''… Or is it ''"des Brezel"''? Or ''" | The Italian "''la brazzatella''" sounds quite similar to the German ''"die Brezel"''… Or is it ''"des Brezel"''? Or ''"der Brezel"''? German speakers can't agree as to the grammatical gender of their pretzels. The jury is also out on whether the first "e" in this word is long or short (as in ''"der/die/das Bretzel"''). There are also those, mostly in Bavaria and Austria, who call it ''"die Brezen"'' (or ''"der Brezen"''). Or even ''"die Brezg"'', as they say along the Bavarian-Swabian border.<ref> {{Cyt | ||
| tytuł = Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache | | tytuł = Atlas zur deutschen Alltagssprache | ||
| rozdział = Bre(t)z- | | rozdział = Bre(t)z- | ||
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[[File:Salomon przy stole.jpg|thumb|left|King Solomon enjoying a meal of fish and pretzels according to ''Hortus Deliciarum'' by Herrad of Landsberg (1185)]] | [[File:Salomon przy stole.jpg|thumb|left|King Solomon enjoying a meal of fish and pretzels according to ''Hortus Deliciarum'' by Herrad of Landsberg (1185)]] | ||
The same blogger proves that pretzels have been known in Alsace since at least the 13th century, | The same blogger proves that pretzels have been known in Alsace since at least the 13th century, because you can find their images in ''Hortus Deliciarum'' (''Garden of Delights''), a kind of medieval illustrated encyclopedia. It was created by Herrad of Landsberg, an abbess of the convent on Mount Saint Odile in the eastern Vosges. You can see breads twisted into the unmistakable pretzel shape in three illuminations depicting Biblical figures seated at a table. What's 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 | What might pretzels have to do with fish? Well, neither of them contains any ingredients of land-animal origin (pretzel dough contains no eggs or butter), which means they may be 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 Pieter Brueghel's famous painting, ''The Fight Between Carnival and Lent''. | ||
{{Clear}} | {{Clear}} | ||
[[File:Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 066.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2|Pieter Brueghel, ''The Fight Between Carnival and Lent'' (1559).<br />How many | [[File:Pieter Bruegel d. Ä. 066.jpg|thumb|center|upright=2|Pieter Brueghel, ''The Fight Between Carnival and Lent'' (1559).<br />How many pretzels can you find here? I got ten (my niece got twelve).]] | ||
And because pretzels were made from the relatively expensive wheat flour, they were not only a lean product, but also a luxurious one. Some of those who could afford them couldn't even wait until Lent and would start eating them already in the carnival. And so in | And because pretzels were made from the relatively expensive wheat flour, they were not only a lean product, but also a luxurious one. Some of those who could afford them couldn't even wait until Lent and would start eating them already in the carnival. And so in some parts of Germany and the Low Countries has the pretzel become a traditional carnival treat. In many towns pretzels are given away during carnival parades. The Flemish town of Geraardsbergen is still known for its tradition of throwing little pretzel-shaped sugar-covered cookies called ''krakelingen'' into the crowd on the first Monday of March.<ref> {{Cyt | ||
| tytuł = Intangible Cultural Heritage | | tytuł = Intangible Cultural Heritage | ||
| rozdział = Krakelingen and Tonnekensbrand, end-of-winter bread and fire feast at Geraardsbergen | | rozdział = Krakelingen and Tonnekensbrand, end-of-winter bread and fire feast at Geraardsbergen | ||
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[[File:Oberndorf Fasnet 2014Di 027.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A carnival parade in Oberndorf on the Neckar, Germany]] | [[File:Oberndorf Fasnet 2014Di 027.jpg|thumb|upright|left|A carnival parade in Oberndorf on the Neckar, Germany]] | ||
But where does this shape come from anyway? Nobody seems to know for sure; even the legends don't agree. One says that the shape of the pretzel is designed to resemble the arms of a monk folded in prayer. According to another one, it was invented by a baker from Württemberg who had been sentenced to death, but whom Count Eberhard von Urach promised to pardon on the condition that he bakes a bread through which the sun would shine three times. In any case, the pretzel shape is so distinctive that bakers' guilds throughout central Europe would adopt it as their coats of arms. You can still find it on the shop sign of many a German bakery. The are differences in the pretzels orientation, though; sometimes the pretzel is painted on a bakery sign belly-up, sometimes, belly-down, and there are even those compromise signs where it's been placed belly-sideways. This is yet another as-yet-unresolved dispute regarding the pretzel.<ref>{{Cyt | |||
| tytuł = Fragen: Wer hat die Brezel erfunden? Und wo ist bei der Brezel eigentlich oben und wo unten? | | tytuł = Fragen: Wer hat die Brezel erfunden? Und wo ist bei der Brezel eigentlich oben und wo unten? | ||
| url = http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cawPEARc-WYJ:www.museum-brotkultur.de/pdf/07Brezeln.pdf | | url = http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cawPEARc-WYJ:www.museum-brotkultur.de/pdf/07Brezeln.pdf | ||
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}}</ref> | }}</ref> | ||
[[File:Frau mit Brezel.jpg|thumb|upright=.6| | [[File:Frau mit Brezel.jpg|thumb|upright=.6|A Bavarian woman with a basket of pretzels]] | ||
The one thing that is common to pretzels from different regions (apart from the shape) is that they are steeped in lye (4% solution of sodium hydroxide), rather than boiled in water, prior to being baked. This is what gives them their smooth, but cracked, shiny copper-brown crust. According to the aforementioned legend, we owe lye pretzels to the Württemberger baker's cat, which accidentally dropped the unbaked pretzels into a vat of lye. As there was no time left to make new ones, the panicked baker just retrieved the pretzels from the lye and popped them into the oven, thus inventing the recipe that is still used today. Bavarians, though, have a different opinion on the lye pretzel's provenance: yes, they were invented by accident, only it wasn't in 15th-century Württemberg, but in 19th-century Munich. | |||
{{ Cytat | {{ Cytat | ||