Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1890-01-18
pRgrzeLs MADE BY HAND.
The Only sort the Epieurean German VIII
Dei4n To Consume.


DeiKn to Consume.
"There il no use in trying 10 make
pretzels by machine, said Washington
baker man 20 a 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, IL is, too, since there IL 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"
"Did you ever see a pretzel made?
Then Just look here" continued the
baker man, grabbing as he spoke q
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 1t was q long,
thin, cylindrical strip. Then taking
each end Of tho strip between a thumb
and forehnger he curled II with two or
three quick motions into the shape OF a
perfect pretzel. The whole process re-
quired perhaps four seconds, but he was
not trying 10 do 1t rapidly.
"But 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
- Of hn Anttrrh IL
made up Just like bread dough. and the
factory hand turns the pretzels out one
by one In precisely the way / showed
you. Az 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 flshed
out with swimmers and thrown upon q
bed OF salt. Finally, with what salt
adheres to them they are picked up gin
gerly and laid in ovens with tae unsalt
cd sides down. When they are done
they are ready for consumption, usually
with beer. No method has thus fal
been discovered OF sailing pretzels 9th
erwise than by hand, so delicately mus
they be handled at this stage Of the per
: Torrance"
: "But how are they cut out by ma
chinery?"
Like ordinary crackers. The dough
Ia rolled out in thin sheets and Laid
: upon an endless belt, which carries
! them along beneath q steel die tina
] cuts out half dozen or more pretzel
shaped pieces at each hammer-lik'
stroke. The pretzels produced in thi
. way look exactly like the handmade
d and. being OF the same material, ongh
. TO be quite as good, but they are not
I The rest of the process has 20 be per
! formed by hand anyway. l fancy tina
the Germans are prejudiced also agains
machine-made pretzels because they re
gard them as against manual labor
r Anyway they sell for three cents
pound less in the market than tn
handmade ones bring. Pennsylvani
3 Is the great pretzel-making State. 1t !
an enormous industry in Scranton
Philadelphia, especially In Pottstowr
r and all through the coal-mining re
8 gions, which are thickly settled wit
3 Germans. The people employed 1
manufacturing them are all Of tina
q race, and in fact wherever you fin
2 pretzels in the world the German
Z found also. To the Teuton they are,
q conjunction with beer, what ambrosi
. was 10 the gods, with nectar on the side.
| -WashinutOn Bar