[Sca-cooks] Pretzels

[Stephen Bloch]

Chris Stanifer wrote:

>I was curious to know if period pretzels were
>boiled in malted water.  I'm pretty sure they were..it seems like a 
>period thing to do... but I
>was hoping for clarification.

MALTED water?  Hmm... from what I've read about modern pretzels, 
they're boiled in or sprayed with lye water; the lye is supposed to 
denature the starch on the surface to make that hard shiny surface. 
I've tried it twice with baking soda (one OK but not great, one 
inedible) and once with lye (from Thora Sharptooth's firepit at 
Pennsic; turned out OK but not great).  Of course, I wasn't using a 
real pretzel recipe; I was using a portion of my high-protein, 
high-fiber, low-carb bread dough.
-- 
                                     John Elys
          (the artist formerly known as mar-Joshua ibn-Eleazar ha-Shalib)
                                 mka Stephen Bloch
                                 sbloch at adelphi.edu