It has to be tied up or it's not a real pretzel. Only a pseudo pretzel.

pretzel sticks and bites and stuff exist.. they have the pretzel "thing"..

they're just not shaped right

okay, so .. since i live in pretzel-land (aka bavaria)

pretzels and pretzel-like goods (like pretzel sticks or mini-pretzels) all fall in the category of "laugengebäck"

which could be roughly translated as "lye dough products"

All I know about lye is that it's used for making soap.

the dough (which is usually a wheat-based yeast dough) is treated with a solution of soda lye before baking

not baking soda, but the nastic stuff

and the thing in fight club.. but that bit was about soap too.

proper pretzels are actually made with lye?

"natronlauge" in german

yes

and it's not just pretzels that are treated that way

i had one of those earlier today: very tasty, a savoury croissant

also bread rolls in various shapes: Laugengebäck – Wikipedia

i'm not a baker, so it's just reading off the internet, but the german wikipedia says the lye reacts with the gluten in the dough, which causes the brown shiny crust

"brezeln" have to be knotted

but what exactly is considered a pretzel in america .. that's something i've never managed to understand

ooo, that croissant looks good..

Our pretzels have the shiny brown crust.. and usually sprinkled with kosher salt..

but all the pretzel recipes I've ever seen have involved a baking soda solution..

that's probably safer and easier to handle at home

well that's true.. but acquiring lye might not be a bad idea... I was thinking awhile ago about trying to make soap anyway

i suppose food grade is probably different, though..

amazon to the rescue: Food Grade Sodium Hydroxide Lye Micro Beads, 2 Lbs.

chemically, it should be the same, but i guess the food grade would be higher purity

Yea. I have used cocoa butter for both cooking and lip balm.. which was also from amazon.

does the root of the usage just date back to before baking soda was used, though?

huh, good question

looks like there are at least two competing legends regarding the origin of lye dough, one from 1477 and one from 1839. in both legends, the pretzels are dropped into the lye solution that was supposed to be

used to clean the workshop, by mistake. full of desperation, the baker still bakes them and they come out tasty

Well depends.. the french might argue that proper pretzels are coated in sugar, but the Germans pulled a 'Japanese' and stole it and made it their own.

I imagine it does. The baking soda bath is perfectly acceptable (I've had both versions)

It looks like baking soda itself wasn't widely used until at least the mid-1800s.. (some stuff about a mined version being used in drawing Egyptian hieroglyphics.. but that's kinda different.)

So if the older legend is the case, it would have been more a matter of the agent in use at the time than what works best for the process..

so it's the accelerated malliard reaction caused by dipping it in an alkaline solution that gives it the skin and makes it be considered a pretzel?

Yep

So the pretzel crust pizza thing? What with the poaching part, it can't be both, right? Possibly one or the other, but not both?

As an insane invents-own-bread-mix-and-makes-homemade-pizza-a-dietary-staple person, the question of what the hell pretzel crust pizza actually is has been bugging me.

its heaven that's what it is lol and i wish it would come back cause i miss it

Maybe just brushed or sprayed with the solution immediately before baking?