The elusive bakery item I always long for. I'm telling you, they can NOT make them in Minnesota. And I don't understand why not. It's not like there aren't any Germans around. Maybe they're all from the wrong parts of Germany? Or corrupted by contact with Scandinavians?
Nuremberg is where “the pretzel madness begins,” said Tinka Bickel, a German marketing manager who lives in New York. South of that German city lies a distinct culinary, linguistic and cultural region where pretzels are much more than a desperation-level snack.
Bavaria is part of this region; there, a classic old-school breakfast is a fresh pretzel — about as wide as a dinner plate — served with two weisswurst (veal sausages) and a dollop of sweet mustard on a plate. Even bigger ones are made for Oktoberfest.
But now, Ms. Bickel said, young people in Munich, Bavaria’s capital, just grab a thickly buttered pretzel with coffee on the way to work.
Wah! I want pretzels and sausage for breakfast!
My homemade sourdough pretzels are pretty good, but someday when I don't have small kids around I'm going to start using a lye bath. But in the meantime, I think I will start adding lard to my pretzels.
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