Huntsville gazette., 1889-11-23
PRETzELs MADE BY HAND.
The Only Sort the Epicurean German VIII
Deign to Consume,

The only Sort the EplcufSan U0fHan W III
Deign to Consume.
s'There is no use in trying to make
pretzels by machine, said Washington
baker man to reporter. I've at
tempted it, and it's 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 delicious sort of skin
which the machine-made lack. A curl
Gus thing, it is, too, since there is no
difference in material, the kneading is
the same, and the only variation in pro-
cess is between stamping with steel
dyes and twisting into shape with the
hands," Tsf rA@ s4.- ~
''Did you ever. see pretzel made?
Then Just look here" continued the
baker man, grabbing as he spoke a
small hunk of ordinary bread dough
from heap on the table close by. He
rolled the hunk rapidly over the board
with both hands until it was long
thin, cylindrical strip. Then taking
each end of the strip between thumb
and forefnger he curled 1t with two or
three quick motions into the shape of
perfect pretzel. The whole process re-
quired perhaps four seconds, but he was
not trying to do it rapidly.
s''But pretzel isn't made Of ordinary
dough-" suggested the newspaper man.
sits material is simply -four and water
with six pounds of lard added for each
barrel of -four. The pretzel dough is
made up just like bread dough, and the
factory hand turns the pretzels- eut one
by one in precisely the way 1 showed
you.s As fast as they are given shape,
like this one have just made, they are
thrown into kettles of boiling lye, kept
at the temperature necessary by steam
Jackets. A moment later they are fshed
out with skimmers and thrown upon a
bed of salt. Finally, with what salt
adheres to them they are picked up gin
gerly and laid in ovens with the unsalt-
ed sides down. When they are done
they are ready for consumption, usually
with beer. No method has thus far
been discovered of sailing pretzels 9TH
erwise than by hand, so delicately must
they be handled at this stage of the per-
formance..'' - So ~ 80
ssBut how are they cut out by ma
chinery?"
Like ordinary crackers. The dough
is rolled out in thin sheets and laid
upon an endless belt, which carries
them along beneath a steel die that
cuts out half dozen or more pretzel-
shaped pieces at each hammer-hke
stroke. The pretzels produced in this
way look exactly like the handmade,
and, being of the same material, ought
to be quite as good, but they are not.
The rest of the process has to be per-
formed by hand anyway. l fancy that
the Germans are prejudiced also against
machine-made pretzels because they re-
gard them as against manual labor.
Anyway they sell for three cents a
pound less in the market than the
handmade ones bring. Pennsylvania
is the great pretzel- making State. 1t is
an enormous industry in Scranton,
Philadelphia, especially in Pottstown
and all through the coal-mining re-
gions, which are thickly settled with
Germans. The people employed in
manufacturing them are all of that
race, and in fact wherever you find
prctzels in the world the German is
found also. To the Teuton they are, in
conjunction with beer, what ambrosia
was to the gods, with nectar on the side %
Washington Bar.