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Laugen Pretzel

A yeast dough pretzel soaked in lye and baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Laugen Pretzel

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the dough

  1. Set a sponge with 2 ounces of yeast and 4 quarts of water.

  2. Let the sponge sit for 7 hours.

  3. Dissolve ½ lb of salt in 8 quarts of water.

  4. Combine the salt solution with the sponge.

  5. Add 5 pounds of lard and enough flour to make a stiff dough.

  6. Let the dough rise for 1 hour.

Shape

  1. Roll the dough out several times.

  2. Break off dough and roll into 2-ounce pieces.

  3. Let the pieces rest for 15 minutes.

  4. Shape the rested pieces into pretzels.

  5. Place pretzels on cloth-covered boards.

  6. Allow a short proof.

Lye, salt and bake

  1. Prepare a boiling lye solution with 1 ounce of caustic soda in 2 quarts of boiling water.

  2. Dip pretzels in the boiling lye solution for about 1 minute until they rise.

  3. Sprinkle pretzels with coarse sea salt.

  4. Bake pretzels in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until nicely browned.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

What each ingredient does

Yeast
Ferments the sponge, producing gas that leavens the dough.
Flour
Forms the gluten network that gives the dough its structure.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a rich texture.
Caustic soda
Alkaline lye bath that helps the surface brown deeply and gives the classic pretzel crust.

The step that matters

Dipping in the boiling lye solution. Lye is strongly alkaline and caustic; too long or too weak a dip gives uneven color or a poor crust. Brief, precise dipping in boiling solution sets the surface so it browns well in the oven.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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