pretzels-msg

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pretzels-msg – 6/10/07

Medieval pretzels and pretzel shaped breads. References.

NOTE: See also the files: bread-msg, breadmaking-msg, fish-msg, cheese-msg, butter-msg, ovens-msg, flour-msg, jumbals-msg.

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NOTICE -

This file is a collection of various messages having a common theme that I have collected from my reading of the various computer networks. Some messages date back to 1989, some may be as recent as yesterday.

This file is part of a collection of files called Stefan's Florilegium. These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

I have done a limited amount of editing. Messages having to do with separate topics were sometimes split into different files and sometimes extraneous information was removed. For instance, the message IDs were removed to save space and remove clutter.

The comments made in these messages are not necessarily my viewpoints. I make no claims as to the accuracy of the information given by the individual authors.

Please respect the time and efforts of those who have written these messages. The copyright status of these messages is unclear at this time. If information is published from these messages, please give credit to the originator(s).

Thank you,

Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous

Stefan at florilegium.org

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Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 08:46:49 -0400

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Alphabet pretzels

Ian van Tets wrote:

> doesn't one of the recipes for jumbles recommend cutting them in Ss

> if no other letter springs conveniently to mind?

> Cairistiona

Funny you should mention jumbles in connection with pretzels: jumbles

are, most traditionally, tied into a knot, or at least in a loop with

overlapping ends, and they are boiled before baking, as many versions of

the pretzel are.

So, of course, are bagels, which appear originally to have been shaped

by forming a loop with overlapping ends, to be poached before baking,

usually with an egg wash. We appear to be moving in some kind of logical

loop here, as well!

Adamantius

Date: Thu, 16 Oct 1997 12:17:15 -0400

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Subject: Re: SC - Alphabet pretzels

Sabia wrote:

> On Thu, 16 Oct 1997, Philip & Susan Troy wrote:

> > Funny you should mention jumbles in connection with pretzels: jumbles

> > are, most traditionally, tied into a knot, or at least in a loop with

> > overlapping ends, and they are boiled before baking, as many versions of

> > the pretzel are.

> Is there a good place to look for documentation of pretzels or jumbles?

As for jumbles, there's a recipe for them in one of the later medieval

English sources, like from the 15th or 16th centuries, entitled 'to make

iombols an hundred". It might be in Goud Kokery, from Curye on Inglysch,

or perhaps the Proper Newe Booke of Cokerye. I'll see if I can find it.

Don't know much about the genuine origin of pretzels, except for the

standard myth from the Larousse Gastronomique, which is almost identical

to the story given in association with the invention of the croissant,

about how some city (Vienna, Budapest, or fill in the blank with your

own home town) was under siege by Islamic invaders, and the activites of

tunnelling sappers was heard by bakers, who gave the alarm, saved the

city, and invented either pretzels or croissants in comemoration... .

Oy, as I once heard a bagel aficionado exclaim, veh!

Adamantius

Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 12:10:41 -0500 (EST)

From: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy at abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

Subject: Re: SC - Alphabet pretzels

And it occurs to me, are pretzels period? I've never seen it mentioned.

Perhaps pictures of pretzels hanging in a shop window or carried by a

fair vender?

Yes, they are, and yes, that's how we know.

Tibor

Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 08:57:47 -0500 (EST)

From: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy at abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>

Subject: Re: SC - Alphabet pretzels

Tibor said pretzels appear in period illustration. Are they throughout

SCA period, or common in part of it, or... ???

If I recall, later period, germanic, and also figured in the heraldry of a

pretzel bakers guild.

I hate to cite the same person twice in rapid succession, but Old Marian

might have more data, if you want specifics. The arms of her business,

Battlefield Bakery (The First in Camp Followers) are a pretzel wrapped

around a sword. (Plug: she can be found at Pennsic, serving only period

food, plus sekanjabin, for lunches or breakfasts. Delicious and charming.)

Tibor

Date: Wed, 29 Oct 1997 09:30:30 -0500 (EST)

From: "Christina M. Krupp" <ckrupp at zoo.uvm.edu>

Subject: Re: SC - Alphabet pretzels

Pretzels are clearly illustrated in a Pieter Brueghel painting called The

Fight Between Carnival and Lent, painted in the earlier half of the

1500's. The pretzels are tied in that familiar knot-shape, but they look a

little more narrow. They're fairly large, more like the size of "soft

pretzels" and they're strung on the lance of the fellow who portrays the

incoming Lenten season. Also on the Lent side are various types of Fish.

On the carnival side are waffles (being made by an old woman crouched over

a fire with a bowl of batter, a waffle-iron, and a pile of waffles near

her).

My father, who comes from Speyer in Germany, says that the coat of arms of

that town portrays several pretzels. The last time he went over, I asked

him to find out more, particularly with regard to the earliest known date

for that heraldic depiction. He returned with no usable documentation, but

he insists that it's "common knowledge" that pretzels were made in Speyer

throughout the Middle Ages, and that the yearly pretzel-and-radish

festival goes back to "ancient days". FWIW.

- --Marieke

Date: Mon, 3 Nov 1997 11:13:32 -0500 (EST)

From: "Christina M. Krupp" <ckrupp at zoo.uvm.edu>

Subject: SC - Pretzels, 1417

Somebody asked about pretzels a while ago. I mentioned the Breughel

painting, the Fight between Carnival and Lent, as being a mid-sixteenth

century source to document the existence of pretzels...

(...or, I should say, to document the existence of pretzel-shaped food,

because of course the fact that it looks like a pretzel to us, doesn't

necessarily mean that it tastes like a modern pretzel; I don't have any

information on what Breughel's pretzels are actually made from, but as a

Lenten food, it would not surprise me to find it was simple flour, water,

yeast, and perhaps a touch of salt....)

Anyway, I just found an earlier illustration. I noticed it in P. W.

Hammond's Food and Feast in Medieval England (1996 ,Sutton Publishing).

On p. 52 is an 1874 redrawing of a scene of street vendors, originally

portrayed in the Concilium Constantiense. It's from Constance, Germany,

and is dated to 1417. Above the merchant's head we see ten pretzel-shaped

items that have been hung on a horizontal rod. If you can believe the

proportions in the illustration, they seem to be the size of an adult's

head.

- -- Marieke

Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 01:53:41 EST

From: korrin.daardain at juno.com (Korrin S DaArdain)

Subject: Re: SC - Bread

On Mon, 04 Jan 1999 13:57:38 -0500 Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

writes:

>These are jumbles! Of course, looking for them on demand, as it were

>(and while in a rush) I can't find a single reference to them, but

>they're a sort of hard biscuit [cookie], commonly shaped into rings,

>knots, or letters of the alphabet, and often flavored with anise. At

>least one jumble recipe (spelling varies from source to source as

>iamboles, iombles, jumbles, etc.) calls for them to be poached until

>"done", probably until they float, but I don't remember for sure, and

>then baked in an oven until dry and hard.

>Adamantius

Found the following in my collection. Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jumbles or Knot Biscuits ≥Jumbles a hundred≤ - (Scottish

Elizabethan dated from 1596 AD)

A Book of Historical Recipes by Sara Paston-Williams The National

Trust of Scotland, 1995 ISBN 0-7078-0240-7; Posted by Paul Macgregor

≥Take twenty Egges and put them into a pot both the yolkes and

the white, beat them wel, then take a pound of beaten sugar and put to

them, and stirre them wel together, then put to it a quarter of a peck of

flower, and make a hard paste thereof, and then with Anniseeds moulde it

well, ane make it in little rowles beeing long, and tye them in knots,

and wet the ends in Rosewater; then put them into a pan of seething

water, but even in one waum, then take them out with a Skimmer and lay

them in a cloth to drie, this being don lay them in a tart panne, the

bottome beeing oyled, then put them into a temperat Oven for one howre,

turning them often in the Oven.

** British Measurements **

1 1/2 oz Butter; salted

4 oz Caster sugar

1 TB Rose-water

1/2 oz Caraway seeds

1 lg. Egg; beaten

8 oz Plain flour

Extra rose-water & caster sugar for glaze

Preheat the oven to 350¯F / 180¯C / gas mark 4. Cream the butter,

sugar and rose-water together, then mix in the caraway seeds, beaten egg

and flour to form a soft dough. Knead on a lightly floured board, then

take small walnut-sized pieces of dough and with your fingers form each

into a roll, approximately 3/4-inch in diameter and 6-inch in length.

Make into simple knots, plaits or rings and arrange on a lightly greased

baking sheet. Brush with rose-water and sprinkle with caster sugar. Bake

near the top of the oven for about 20 minutes, or until tinged with

brown. (Knots and plaits will take longer to bake than simple rings, so

don't mix shapes on a baking sheet.) Remove from the oven and cool on a

wire rack. Store in an airtight tin. Delicious when served with syllabub.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Korrin S. DaArdain

Kitchen Steward of Household Port Karr

Kingdom of An Tir in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Korrin.DaArdain at Juno.com, (www.geocities.com/NapaValley/Vineyard/1709)

Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 16:13:58 -0500

From: "Gryphon's Moon" <kimberly at gryphonsmoon.com>

Subject: SC - Period pretzels- Better late than never...

>Morgan commented:

>> As it happened, someone else was selected, so the exercise was for naught.

>> (It did lead to period documentation for pretzels, in my wanderings,

>> however!).

>Could you please post this new documentation here? or send it to

>me? All I've seen was a brief discriptions of pretzels in a few period

>pictures that included street venders that was mentioned on this list

>earlier. If you've got more, especially any written description of what

>they were like or what was in them, it would be great!

> Stefan li Rous

Look for "Hours of Catherine of Cleves", with an introduction and

commentaries by John Plummer. This little book is a gem. The illuminations

are gorgeous! The borders around several of the main figures are somewhat

unusual-- such as the border for Saint Bartholomew Apostle-- which is

composed of pretzels and biscuits. There's no way to tell what size the

pretzels would have been, because there is no way of telling what scale is

used. I also don't know if the pretzels were soft or crunchy. But they are

definitely pretzel shaped.

Other things that can be found in various other places in the book--

-big fish eating small fish eating eels, including a picture of fishooks

-bows, crossbows, arrows and quivers

-bird cages, including some used for training birds

-coins

-beehives

-a rosary

-a brick oven

-paper gift boxes (the artist cleverly painted two of them folded,

but not complete, so you can actually figure out how to make these yourself)

-and so forth and so on...

All the stuff I mentioned above is from the margins, which also contain

plenty of flowers, angels, demons, and other more typical decorations. The

main pictures themselves are also a rich source of ideas for neat things to

make.

The manuscript dates from approximately 1440.

Now, can anyone tell me how a Book of Hours was used?

- -Margritte

Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 13:56:31 -0800

From: "James L. Matterer" <jlmatterer at labyrinth.net>

Subject: SC - Portable Pie Oven

I have a picture of some sort of portable pie oven on the WWW at:

http://www.labs.net/dmccormick/huen/mpix/mpix39.jpg

The picture is identified as being "Street sellers, 1417, Constance,

Germany." The source is P. W. Hammond, Food & Feast in Medieval England.

I was wondering if anyone had any ideas or knowledge of:

(1) the large pretzel-like objects above the pie shop, upper right.

Would these be like our modern soft pretzel, or like a sort of cake, or

a bread? Or something entirely different? They look like they would be

fun to make for an outdoor event.

(2) the portable pie oven. Is it a complete oven, where the entire

baking process was performed, or simply some sort of warmer that

transported the food to the pie shop itself? Would a "real" oven like

this really be feasible?

Huen

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 07:06:06 EST

From: WOLFMOMSCA at aol.com

Subject: Re: SC - jumbles or cracknels recipe needed

Bonne writes:

<< need a recipe for pretzels or cracknels or jumbles >>

Gervase Markham, The English Hous-wife, 1615

To make finer Jumbals To make Jumbals more fine and curious than the former,

and neerer to the taste of the Macaroon, take a pound of Sugar, beat it fine.

Then take as much fine wheat flowre, and mixe them together. Then take two

whites and one yolk of and Egge, half a wuarter of a pound of blanched

Almonds: then beat them very fine altogether, with half a dish of sweet

butter and a spoonfull of Rose water, and so work it with a little Cream till

it come to a very stiff paste. Then roul them forth as you please: and

hereto you shall also, if you please, adde a few dryed Anniseeds finely

rubbed, and strewed into the paste, and also Coriander seeds.

Redaction:

1/2 c. sugar

2 egg whites

1 egg yolk

1/2 c. sifted flour

4 Tbsp butter, melted and cooled to warm

1 1/2 tsp rosewater

3/4 c. blanched almonds, coarsely ground

1-2 tsp anise and/or coriander seeds

Whip sugar & egg whites until mixture is consistency of heavy cream. Add egg

yolk, flour, butter, and rosewater. Blend thoroughly. Stir in almonds. Drop

batter from a teaspoon (for round cookies) or squeeze dough through a pastry

tube into shapes onto a well-greased lightly flooured cookie sheet at least 1

1/2 inches apart. Sprinkle tops with anise and/or coriander seeds. Bake at

400 for 12 minutes, or until jumbals are golden brown around the edges.

Remove from baking sheet immediately and cool on a wire rack.

Wolfmother

Date: Thu, 25 Mar 1999 21:49:31 -0500

From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>

Subject: Re: SC - jumbles or cracknels recipe needed

Bonne of Traquair wrote:

> I don't mind a recipe with boiling. I'm planning on serving these along

> with a pea soup flavored with ginger (Recipe#1 in "the Medieval Kitchen,

> the Cretonee of new peas we discussed last month.)

Maybe someone has the Italian ciambole recipe posted and discussed a

while back on the cooks' list? That's probably the closest to a pretzel

you're going to find. As I recall it was a yeast dough (you might cheat

with bread flour) with little or no shortening, no sugar to speak of,

and a flavoring of anise or fennel seed.

Adamantius

Date: Fri, 26 Mar 1999 01:31:51 EST

From: Korrin S DaArdain <korrin.daardain at juno.com>

Subject: Re: SC - jumbles or cracknels recipe needed

Bonne writes:

>a recipe for pretzels or cracknels or jumbles

Jumbles or Knot Biscuits "Jumbles a hundred" - (Scottish

Elizabethan dated from 1596 AD)

A Book of Historical Recipes by Sara Paston-Williams The National

Trust of Scotland, 1995 ISBN 0-7078-0240-7; Posted by Paul Macgregor

"Take twenty Egges and put htem into a pot both the yolkes and