What Is a Philly Pretzel?

Regardless of Philadelphia’s fame because the “Cheesesteak Capital of the World,” there’s one meals that is much more ubiquitous within the Metropolis of Brotherly Love: the Philly delicate pretzel.

Thicker, doughier, and extra elongated than your conventional delicate pretzel—those restricted to baseball-stadium concession stands, film theaters, and meals carts in most different cities—this beloved staple will be discovered at just about each nook retailer, native sporting occasion, and cafeteria within the higher Philadelphia space. They’re bought in elementary colleges and excessive colleges throughout lunch, by distributors stationed all through Heart Metropolis, and at Wawa comfort shops. Volunteer firefighters hawk them at stoplights to boost funds for his or her departments, and native companies purchase them in bulk as worker treats. Even regional Walmarts promote them. And, after all, there are the devoted, stand-alone pretzel bakeries which were baking them recent, very first thing within the morning, for many years (typically together with variations, equivalent to pretzel rolls and braids). The Philly pretzel is a sight as acquainted to the Philadelphian as The Franklin Institute Science Museum or the Delaware River.

It is stated that Philadelphians (this contains those that dwell within the higher suburbs, and South Jersey people like me) eat more than 12 times as many pretzels as the average American. All kinds of pretzels and pretzel-adjacent snacks—grocery retailer SuperPretzels, sourdough laborious pretzels, chocolate-covered pretzels, and peanut butter–stuffed pretzels—are made round Philly; even Auntie Anne’s Pretzels originated at a farmers market simply outdoors town.

Philly pretzels are available rows of 5 or extra paper clip–formed, pull-apart coils, their burnished brown crusts speckled with flakes of salt. Each native can instantly recall to mind the distinct pleasure of biting by means of the outer shell (typically crisp, although typically “simply cooked”) and sinking their enamel into the thick, chewy, delicate inside of a still-warm pretzel because the savory scent of freshly baked dough fills the air. However ask that very same native to explain what makes the Philly pretzel’s style and texture distinctive, and also you’ll get a fuzzier reply, laden with je ne sais quoi (however continuously meandering again to “doughy” and “dense”). In different phrases, Philadelphians discuss their pretzels the way in which they could discuss in regards to the ineffable charms of a soul mate. “The way in which folks within the Philadelphia space love their delicate pretzels jogs my memory of New Yorkers and their love of bagels,” says Susan Heim Kelly, a South Jersey transplant who now resides on Lengthy Island, New York.

Historical past of the Philly Gentle Pretzel

The histories of Philadelphia and the pretzel are so intertwined that at one level within the early ’90s, Philly was house to its very personal pretzel museum. However how did pretzels turn out to be such an integral a part of Philadelphia’s culinary and cultural cloth?

Although most sources agree that the first pretzel ever was created by a western European monk around AD 610, it took till roughly the 18th century for the laugenbrezel—the everyday Bavarian pretzel that’s darkish brown, delicate on the within, and crispy on the skin from the appliance of a lye answer—to seem in North America.

Based on the oldsters at Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, Palatine German immigrants (now often known as the Pennsylvania Dutch) introduced pretzels with them to the New World as early as 1710. Nonetheless, it wasn’t till 1861 that the Sturgis bakery, which claims to be America’s first business pretzel bakery, lastly opened its doorways in Lititz, Pennsylvania, within the coronary heart of bucolic Lancaster County. For years, the corporate shared a narrative that in 1850, a hobo driving the rails hopped off close to a bakery in Lancaster County and exchanged an age-old pretzel recipe for a meal, but it surely not too long ago admitted that this jawn was a fantasy. As an alternative, the corporate merely fine-tuned and perfected an present recipe, creating one in every of America’s favourite snack meals within the course of. Quickly sufficient, this European-style delicate pretzel would take over America’s ball parks, snack stands, and meals courts.

On the similar time, nonetheless, a brand new offshoot of that pretzel was additionally rising: the Philadelphia delicate pretzel. Although particulars on its evolution are murky, what we all know for certain is that the Nacchio household’s Federal Baking Firm in South Philadelphia is a bona fide front-runner for the honour of getting created the distinct Philly pretzel fashion. Within the Twenties, the bakery—later renamed the Federal Pretzel Baking Firm, and now part of South Jersey–primarily based conglomerate J&J Snack Foods—started utilizing conveyor tools to bake pretzels in bulk: Rods of dough have been hand-twisted into elongated figure-eight shapes, squished in opposition to each other, and run by means of an alkaline soaking answer earlier than baking, leading to a string of soppy pretzels that needed to be pulled aside earlier than consuming. The Nacchio household even began promoting them to native colleges, thus instilling in Philadelphia-area college students an timeless love for the corporate’s pretzels.

“For anybody that grew up right here, that love of soppy pretzels is tucked someplace method again of their reminiscences,” says South Jerseyan Gerald “Gerry” B. Shreiber, J&J’s founder and president. “They fire up endorphins that take you proper again to childhood.”

Like most space natives, Tom Monaghan found town’s beloved delicate pretzel at a younger age, snacking on them after Little League video games performed in northwest Philly’s Roxborough neighborhood. Monaghan was the chief improvement officer at Philly Pretzel Factory, a franchised bakery with 174 places in 19 totally different states. The Manufacturing unit’s pretzel occasion trays are a normal at hospital conferences, faculty gatherings, and firm social occasions, and every franchise’s capacity to bake a whole bunch of pretzels to order makes Philly Pretzel Manufacturing unit a go-to for native fundraisers.

“Philly and South Jersey expats are all the time the primary ones to indicate up at our out-of-state openings,” says Monaghan. “They assist us unfold the Philly love.” Nonetheless, because the Manufacturing unit continues increasing throughout the US, some dyed-in-the-wool Philadelphians query the authenticity of its pretzels.

What Defines a Philadelphia Gentle Pretzel?

This raises the query: What really defines a Philadelphia delicate pretzel? An excellent Philly delicate pretzel has the right skin-to-dough ratio—about 4 instances as a lot doughy inside as skinny exterior—and, when eaten straight from the oven and virtually squishy inside, appears to soften in your mouth. That softness is what distinguishes the Philly fashion, and it could possibly make the normal delicate pretzel bought in different states appear virtually laborious compared.

However is it essential {that a} Philly delicate pretzel be produced and eaten within the metropolis? It will depend on whom you ask. As Shreiber sees it, “Some issues—like Philadelphia delicate pretzels—do not journey nicely. It is simply such part of Philly tradition.” He isn’t alone in that evaluation. Whereas there are those that assume it’s the substances, most notably the “wudder,” and the approach that make a Philadelphia pretzel, others imagine it is unimaginable to separate the folks of Philadelphia from the pretzels themselves. “It is not a Philly pretzel as a result of anyone places the title ‘Philly’ on the bag,” says Erika Bonnett, whose household has owned and operated South Philly’s Center City Pretzel since its opening greater than 37 years in the past. “It comes from a household of laborious staff, who’ve put their lives into making pretzels for practically 4 a long time with nothing however their prospects and one another in thoughts.”

For nonetheless others, an abiding desire for a Philly delicate pretzel baked in Philly is pushed by pure nostalgia. Household-owned and -operated Furfari’s Soft Pretzel Bakery (now closed) was situated within the metropolis’s Fishtown neighborhood, the place it had stood for practically 60 years. Every pretzel was nonetheless twisted by hand. “My husband grew up proper across the nook [from Furfari’s],” says South Jerseyan Carey Collins-Harris. “He’ll nonetheless drive over [the bridge from New Jersey] to get them straight from their oven, recent and heat.”

The query of whether or not you’ll be able to take the pretzel out of Philly with out taking Philly out of the pretzel stays unanswered, however regardless of the talk, it’s clear that you just don’t must be a neighborhood to be a fan.

“I do not assume it is merely Philadelphians and South Jerseyans who’re enamored with [Philly] delicate pretzels,” says Lisa Furfari Barb, Furfari’s social media administrator. “Anybody lured into the bakery by the aroma of baking pretzels is pondering, ‘Can I get some mustard and a delicate drink to go together with that?'”

Could 2018