Pass the Mustard, Please!     Happy National Pretzel Day

April 26, 2025

Pretzels! Who doesn’t love pretzels? 

Put down that can of chips or box of square crackers and show your love for one of the most versatile snacks ever …… the Pretzel! Whether you like the snap of crispy twists or prefer them soft and chewy, grab your favorite and join the National Pretzel Day celebration today, April 26th.

Just where did this addictive snack come from? 

Pretzel historians offer a few origin stories, but usually share the most likely and often told legend from the Roman Empire. Apparently in 610 A.D., an Italian monk wanted a way to reward his child students for memorizing their prayers. Instead of baking loaves of morning bread, the Monk twisted thin strips of the dough into symmetrical loops by intertwining or knotting the two ends before folding them back on each other (today’s familiar “pretzel loop”). The shape he made was said to resemble a child with his arms crossed in prayer. The Monk called his invention ‘pretiola’ meaning ‘little rewards’.

From then on, these soft ‘little rewards’ became popular in Austrian bakeries and in all of Germany, and so on throughout the world. 

Not being satisfied with baking only soft pretzels, in 1850, Julius Sturgis bought a hard pretzel recipe from a local tramp (wonder why a tramp would have such a recipe? Thoughts?).  After baking and baking, and perfecting the recipe, it was clear to Julius the hard pretzel was a success. The pretzel’s popularity quickly spread, inspiring many other bakers in central Pennsylvania to make their own versions of the hard pretzel. But the original ‘Sturgis’ hard pretzel was a keeper. In 1861, the Julius Sturgis Pretzel Bakery, located in Lititz, Pennsylvania in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch Country, became the first commercial pretzel bakery in America.

Naturally, die-hard fans of the warm/soft pretzel weren’t won over by the overwhelming appeal of the hard/crispy version. With the soft pretzel market still alive and growing, by the 20th century soft pretzels became very popular not only in Philadelphia, but in Chicago and New York as well.

The Pretzel of Today 

How many shapes and flavors of pretzels can you think of? Here’s my lists ……. 

Hard pretzel shapes: traditional loop, thick and thin; stick shapes, both thin and in thick rods; twisted, clockwise and counterclockwise; round rings with and without knots; thick stumpy bite-sized nuggets, filled and unfilled; chip shaped and waffle shaped. 

Hard pretzel flavors: salted, cinnamon sugar, peanut butter, peanut butter and jelly, honey mustard, cheese, honey wheat, honey butter, ranch, ranch and jalapeño, garlic, sea salt caramel, sour cream and onion, and buffalo wing.

And for soft pretzels …… it’s all about the dipping sauces and coatings:  Of course there’s yellow mustard, garlic mustard, melty cheese, melty beer cheese. But there’s also chocolate dipped, aioli, truffle hot sauce, buffalo ranch, cinnamon sugar, and marinara.

Can you add more?

Pretzel Fun Factz!

• Pennsylvania is the center of American pretzel production for both hard and soft pretzels, producing 80% of the nation’s pretzels.
• Today, the average Philadelphian consumes about twelve times as many pretzels as the national average.
• Philadelphia opened a privately run “Pretzel Museum” in 1993.
• The annual United States pretzel industry is worth over $550 million.
• The average American consumes about 1.5 pounds of pretzels per year.

How will you celebrate National Pretzel Day 2025? Here’s a few ideas …..

• Enjoy a bag of your favorite hard pretzels, and gift one to a friend.
• Visit your local bakery or even the mall to sample their selection of warm soft pretzels.
• Try a game of “Toss the Ring” with ring-shaped pretzels.
• Go on a pretzel scavenger hunt.
• Host a pretzel and beer party for your neighborhood.
• Bake a batch of soft pretzels for the party and have everyone bring their favorite dipping sauce.

And now ……… 

Curiously, Flambé has been following my post with fascination. Always hungry, could it be she’s developing pretzel cravings? What baker, in their right mind, would ever scent a batch with eau de fish? If a pretzel maker thought mackerel flavored twists  would ever be popular, they might just be crazy (or not?). Becoming more famished by the minute, Kat insisted on explaining her ‘irrational’ excitement in a “Blitz” poem (a style created by Robert Keim.¹). She felt this poem style not only suited all the twists and turns found in a properly-constructed pretzel loop, it best expressed the twisting and turning pathway her mind took to explain herself and help us “get it!”  What do you think?

¹ Shout out to Michele Lee, My Inspired Life blog post dated 04/05/2025, for sharing her amazing Blitz poem and providing the rules to create one too. Thanks Michele!

As always. Thanks for stopping by! 

Here are the guidelines for the Blitz poem, created by Robert Keim:

• Line 1 should be one short phrase or image (like “build a boat”)
• Line 2 should be another short phrase or image using the same first word as the first word in Line 1 (something like “build a house”)
• Lines 3 and 4 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 2 as their first words (so Line 3 might be “house for sale” and Line 4 might be “house for rent”)
• Lines 5 and 6 should be short phrases or images using the last word of Line 4 as their first words, and so on until you’ve made it through 48 lines
• Line 49 should be the last word of Line 48
• Line 50 should be the last word of Line 47
• The title of the poem should be three words long and follow this format: (first word of Line 3) (preposition or conjunction) (first word of line 47)
• There should be no punctuation