Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1889-10-31
PRETZELS MADE BY HAND.
The Only Sort tho Epicurean Teuton VIII
Deign to Consume.

Tho Only Sort tho Epicurean Teuton Will
Deign to Consume.
"There is no use in trying to make pretzels
by machine" said Washington baker man
to reporter I've attempted it, and it's a
dead failure. The Germans won't buy any
but the hand made, which. for some reason
nobody has been ever able to make out, are
sweeter and of better flavor, even when the
dough used is precisely the same in both.
Then, again, the ones turned out by hand
have a delicate sort OF skin which the ma
chine made lack A curious thing it is, too,
since there is no difference in material, the
kneading is the same, and the only variation
in process is between stamping with steel
dyes and twisting into shape with the hands. "
Did you ever see pretzel made9 Then
just look here" continued the baker man,
grabbing as he spoke small hunk of ordi-
nary bread dough from heap on the table
close by He rolled The hunk rapidly over
the board with both hands until it was a
long, thin, cylindrical strip. Then taking
each end of the strip between a thumb and
forehnger he curled it with two or three
quick motions into the shape of a perfect
pretzel The whole process required perhaps
four seconds, but he was not trying to do it
rapidly.
"But a pretzel isn't made of ordinary
dough" suggested the newspaper man.
Its material is simply -four and water,
with six pounds Of lard added for each bar
rel of flour. The pretzel dough is made up
Just like bread dough, and the factory hand
turns the pretzels out one by one in precisely
the way showed you. As fast as they are
given shape, like this one 1 have just made,
they are thrown into kettles of boiling I've,
kept at the temperature necessary by steam
jackets A moment later they are fshed out
with swimmers and thrown upon a bed Of
salt Finally, with what salt adheres 10
them, they are picked up gingerly and laid in
ovens, with the unsalted sides down. When
they are done they are ready for consslmp-
ton, usually with beer No method has thus
far been discovered Of sailing pretzels other
wise than by hand, SO delicately must they
be handled at this stage of the performance
But how are they cut by machineryT
Like ordinary crackers The dough is
rolled out in thin sheets and laid upon an end
less belt, which carries them along beneath a
steel die that cuts out hah a dozen or more
pretzel shaped pieces at each hammer hka
stroke The pretzsls produced in this way
of the same material, ought to be quite as
good, but they are not. The rest of the pro-
cess has TO be performed by hand anyway
fancy that the Germans are prejudiced also
against machine made pretDels because they
regard them as against honest manual labor.
Anyway they sen for s cents pound less in
the market than the hand made ones bring.
Pennsylvania is the great pretEel making state
1t is an enormous industry in Scranton,
Philadelphia, especially in Fottstowu, and al
through the coal mining regions, which are
thickly settled With Germans The people
employed in manufacturing them are ali OF
that race. ard, in fact, wherever you find
pretzels in the world tho German is found
also To the feuton they are, IN conjunction
with beer, what anbro<iA was % the gods.
with nectar on the side. n-Washington Star.