How we make Hammond's Pretzels
History
of the Pretzel
The history of the pretzel dates back to 600 AD when a monk in the area
between France and Italy was playing with dough left over from the daily
baking. While he was playing he came up with a unique twist that looked
like arms crossed in prayer. This baked "pretiola" was given to children
as a reward for their reverence.
This treat gained in popularity, and as was the culture of the time,
spread to other monasteries over the Alps into Austria and Germany where
it came to be known as the "pretzel". It became more popular with time
becoming a symbol in marriage (broken like a wishbone at the ceremony),
saving a city (pretzel bakers heard the Turks burrowing under the walls of
Vienna in 1510 A.D. and called out the alarm and saved the city), and
becoming a religious symbol (a page in the prayer book used by Catharine
of Cleves depicts St. Bartholomew surrounded by pretzels which were
thought to bring good luck, prosperity and spiritual wholeness.)
The pretzel first appears in America in the record of, what else, a
court case. It seems a baker named Carl Carmer and his wife in 1652 were
charged with selling Pretzels to the Indians. The problem wasn't that the
Indians were eating pretzels (which they loved), but that the pretzels
were made from the good flour from milling while the bread sold to the
good people of Beverwyck, New York was made from the left-overs. As
recorded in the town's history "The heathen were eating flour while the
Christians were eating bran."
The Pennsylvania Dutch Hard Pretzel was made and sold as a side-line by
bakers in the Lancaster area since the early 1800's. The first American
pretzel bakery supposedly start with a tale of altruism. It seems that a
baker in Lititz gave a drifter a free meal in the 1850's - in return for
his kindness the tramp gave the baker a recipe for pretzels that
eventually became the recipe of the baker's apprentice - Julius Sturgis.
This style of Pretzel became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch Hard Pretzel.
We at Hammond's use the same process as was used then, believing that the
hands-on approach to baking yields a better product than anything a
machine could ever do.
Let us show you how
we do it... | 
