44 Fun Facts About Pretzels

In the best-known legend, a monk crossed strips of dough so the pretzel would resemble what?

Two hands praying is the image in the tale, set in an Italian monastery around AD 610. Worshippers then prayed with arms folded across the chest, and the twist is said to copy the pose.

Legend says a monk gave pretzels to pupils who learned their lessons, calling them 'pretiola', Latin for what?

Little rewards is the usual gloss of 'pretiola' in the tale. No record of the monk survives, and dictionaries give the word 'pretzel' a different Latin root altogether.

Some dictionaries trace the word 'pretzel' to a medieval Latin term for which piece of jewellery?

Bracelet is how some dictionaries read the root, medieval Latin 'bracellus'. Most word historians prefer a sister word for a biscuit shaped like folded arms.

The pretzel has been the emblem of which trade's guilds in southern Germany since at least the 12th century?

Bakers have used the pretzel as their guild sign since the Middle Ages, and one still hangs above many bakery doors in Germany, often held up by lions.

Simple flour-and-water pretzels were popular during which Christian season, when eggs, lard and dairy were forbidden?

Lent once ruled out meat, eggs and dairy, so a bread of flour, water and salt suited the fast. Bruegel painted pretzels among the fasting foods in his 1559 'Fight Between Carnival and Lent'.

German farm children once hunted for hidden pretzels on the morning of which Christian festival?

Easter morning once meant a pretzel hunt around the farm, the twists sometimes hidden alongside hard-boiled eggs. The custom is thought to be a forerunner of the egg hunt.

In Christian lore, the three holes in a pretzel's twist came to stand for what?

The Holy Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit was read into the three openings, which helped turn a plain fasting bread into a symbol of good luck and prosperity.

A typical Swabian pretzel is described as having very thin 'arms' and what else?

The thin arms bake crisp while the thick belly stays soft; Bavarian bakers, by contrast, leave the arms thicker so nothing crisps up.

Legend says pretzel bakers saved which city by hearing Ottoman troops tunnelling under its walls at night?

Vienna's bakers, up at their ovens through the night, are said to have raised the alarm and helped beat back the attack, earning an imperial reward. Treat it as folklore.

Southern German and Swiss immigrants who brought the pretzel to North America became known by which name?

Pennsylvania Dutch is the name that stuck to settlers from the Rhineland and Switzerland. 'Dutch' was once the everyday English word for Germans, and that older sense lived on in America.

Julius Sturgis opened America's first commercial pretzel bakery in 1861 in which Pennsylvania county, the heart of Amish country?

Lancaster County's town of Lititz is where Sturgis set up shop, and visitors on the bakery tour get to twist a pretzel of their own.

Bakery lore says the recipe behind Julius Sturgis's first pretzels came from whom?

A tramp repaying a meal is the story told in Lititz: he left the recipe as thanks for dinner, and the pretzels sold so well that Sturgis gave up baking bread.

Germans' folk remedy for an upset stomach pairs pretzel sticks with which drink?

Cola and pretzel sticks are what many German children were given, on the theory that the pair put back what the body has lost. Doctors mostly advise against it, since so much sugar can make matters worse.

Legend says hard pretzels began when a baker's apprentice did what?

Fell asleep is the tale: the fire cooked every drop of moisture out of the dough, and the furious master tasted one, loved the crunch and saw it would keep far longer.

A tall tale puts America's first pretzels aboard which ship?

The Mayflower is the ship in the rumour, which has the Pilgrims trading pretzels with Native Americans. The surer route is the German settlers of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Prized as lucky charms, pretzels were once hung on what?

Christmas trees were hung with pretzels as tokens of good fortune. Seen as lucky, the plain twists were also commonly handed out to the poor.

Some say Swiss wedding pretzels gave English which phrase for marrying?

Tying the knot may go back to the custom: bride and groom each made a wish, then pulled the pretzel apart like a wishbone to seal the match.

In Seinfeld, Kramer wins one line in a Woody Allen film: 'These pretzels are making me' what?

Thirsty is the word. Jerry, George and Elaine each try their own reading of the line, and Kramer is fired after his take sends glass flying at the director.

Legend says a condemned Swabian baker invented the pretzel so what could shine through it three times?

Sun, said the count's riddle: bake a loaf it can shine through three times. The baker copied his wife's folded arms, and the three-holed twist won his pardon.

Which US president fainted after a pretzel went down the wrong way?

George W. Bush came round on the floor with a bruised cheek after his heart rate dipped as he swallowed. He joked the next day that his mother had always told him to chew before swallowing.

The 2002 White House pretzel scare struck while the president was doing what?

Watching a football game alone on the couch, he blacked out and hit the floor. He guessed he was out only seconds, because his dogs Barney and Spot had not moved.

A privately run Pretzel Museum opened in 1993 in which US city?

Philadelphia's museum gave hands-on twisting lessons and a free pretzel to every visitor before it closed. Locals are said to eat about twelve times as many pretzels as other Americans.

Auntie Anne's, the mall pretzel chain, began in 1988 as a stand at what kind of venue?

A farmers' market in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, is where Anne Beiler and her husband Jonas ran the first stand. Branches overseas have since sold seaweed and banana pretzels.

Auntie Anne's pretzels share a parent company with which other food-court favourite, often sold from the same counter?

Cinnabon joined Focus Brands in 2004 and Auntie Anne's followed in 2010, which is why the two so often share a counter. The Atlanta parent renamed itself GoTo Foods in 2024.

In a 1997 episode of The Simpsons, who buys a Pretzel Wagon franchise, only for the Springfield Mafia to muscle in?

Marge Simpson buys the wagon from a salesman voiced by Jack Lemmon. Sales take off only after Homer quietly asks mob boss Fat Tony to lean on her rivals.

Which soup company announced in December 2017 that it would buy Snyder's-Lance?

Campbell paid $4.9 billion for the maker of Snyder's of Hanover, which put the pretzels in the same snack cupboard as its Goldfish crackers.

The lye bath that gives a traditional pretzel its dark, glossy skin is a solution of which chemical?

Sodium hydroxide, better known as caustic soda, sounds alarming, but the oven turns it into a harmless carbonate. Home bakers often use a milder baking-soda bath instead.

A pretzel's alkaline lye dip speeds up which browning process, the same one that colours a seared steak?

The Maillard reaction between amino acids and sugars runs faster in alkaline conditions, which is why a dipped pretzel bakes deep brown while plain bread stays pale.

The French lye roll 'mauricette' was invented in 1973 in which region?

Alsace sits on the German border and shares Germany's taste for lye-dipped breads, sold there as 'bretzels'.

Co-founder Rick Wetzel named Wetzel's Pretzels after which childhood memory?

A schoolyard taunt stuck with him: children used to shout 'Hey Wetzel, you pretzel!' The first store opened at a mall in Redondo Beach, California.

The Rold Gold pretzel brand is made by which snack giant?

Frito-Lay owns Rold Gold, and its 1995 Super Bowl ad for the pretzels closed with Jason Alexander seeming to parachute into the stadium.

Utz, the Pennsylvania pretzel maker, began in 1921 selling what, cooked at the founders' home?

Potato chips came first: Salie Utz cooked about 50 pounds an hour at home in Hanover while her husband William delivered them to local grocers.

Munich's Oktoberfest, the world's best-known festival of beer and pretzels, began in 1810 as a celebration of what?

A royal wedding between Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese was marked with a horse race, and the festival ground, the Theresienwiese, is named after the bride.

At Munich's Oktoberfest, how does a 'Wiesnbrezn' differ from an everyday pretzel?

It is much bigger: a Wiesnbrezn must weigh at least 250 grams, and its soft crumb is made for mopping up roast gravy.

Weisswurst, the sausage served with a pretzel, is traditionally eaten by zuzeln, which means what?

Sucking it from the skin is the old way: bite open one end and draw the meat out. Tradition adds that the sausages should never hear the noon church bells.

Which German region's pretzel won EU protected status in 2014?

Bavaria's 'Bayerische Breze' joined Nuremberg sausages on the EU's protected list. The ruling even describes its glossy copper-brown crust and the wild cracks that open as it bakes.

Legend says the glossy brown Bavarian pretzel was born in 1839 when a Munich baker mistakenly glazed his batch with what?

Tray-cleaning fluid, the tale goes: Anton Pfannenbrenner grabbed the lye kept for scrubbing baking trays instead of his usual sugar water, and the coffee-house guests loved it.

Which single from Steely Dan's 1974 album 'Pretzel Logic' became the biggest chart hit of the band's career?

Rikki Don't Lose That Number reached number four in the summer of 1974. Its opening riff closely echoes jazz pianist Horace Silver's 'Song for My Father'.

On Luxembourg's Bretzelsonndeg a man gives his sweetheart a pretzel, and if she accepts, what does she give him later?

An egg at Easter means yes and an empty basket means no, which is why 'getting the basket' is Luxembourgish for being dumped. In leap years the women hand out the pretzels.

Guinness World Records' largest pretzel, a 783 kg giant baked in El Salvador in 2015, was made by what kind of company?

A brewery baked it: Industrias La Constancia made the pretzel in San Salvador under its Pilsener beer brand, and it stretched nearly nine metres long and four metres wide.

What is the most common topping on a pretzel?

Salt in big crunchy grains is the classic finish. In Pennsylvania the traditional partner is a stripe of mustard, a habit traced to the hot-dog vendors who once sold pretzels.

Which kind of pretzel should be eaten shortly after it is made, unlike its long-shelf-life cousin?

The moisture that keeps a soft pretzel chewy also makes it stale within hours, which is why they are sold warm from carts and mall counters.

Wetzel's Pretzels sells its small shareable pretzel pieces under what name?

Bitz is the chain's name for its shareable bites. The two founders first wrote out their business plan on the back of a bar napkin.

In The Office's 'Initiation', which employee counts down the days to the next free Pretzel Day?

Stanley Hudson, the office grump, beams at the very mention of Pretzel Day. Michael queues with him, then rides a sugar high into a rambling speech and falls asleep at his desk.