The End Pieces Are Best. Especially With Brown Mustard

May 31, 2018 8:58 AM

The Philly Pretzel: One Twisted Jawn An ode/explainer from the fine folks at Serious Eats, to one of those most noble of foods, the Philadelphia Soft Pretzel—which is a different beast than the soft pretzel you might be thinking of if you're not from the Philadelphia area.
posted by SansPoint (49 comments total)

Ohhh, this article is making my mouth water. I haven't had a proper Philly pretzel in 15 years.
posted by hopeless romantique at 9:17 AM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

🥨
posted by Special Agent Dale Cooper at 9:25 AM on May 31, 2018

Whenever I want to feel old, I remember when I was a kid in the Philly burbs in the 80s and there was a weekly ‘pretzel day’ at school. The local bakery would bring in some obscene amount of fresh pretzels and they were sold for 10 cents each. Parents would give you an extra two quarters with your lunch money and you’d bring home a brown paper bag of pretzels for your family.
posted by gnutron at 9:29 AM on May 31, 2018 [24 favorites]

So the difference is supposed to be "Thicker, doughier, and more elongated than your traditional soft pretzel"?
I'm having trouble seeing how they could be all that different. Is this something you'd have to...
posted by bitslayer at 9:36 AM on May 31, 2018

A proper Philadelphia soft pretzel is cold, sold from a cart on the street or sold at your field hockey game, a little clammy, and slightly stale. That is to say, terrible, but a sort of food thing.

The current chain pretzels, hot and delicious, are not in any way authentic. The pretzel should be astonishingly awful.
posted by Peach at 9:41 AM on May 31, 2018 [17 favorites]

There's an ice cream shop near me that serves packaged Federal Pretzels, which until now I assumed were ordinary soft pretzels. Would grabbing one of those be the Correct Philly Experience? Because if so I'm definitely going there this afternoon for a pretzel experiment.
posted by skymt at 9:46 AM on May 31, 2018

Whenever I want to feel old, I remember when I was a kid in the Philly burbs in the 80s and there was a weekly ‘pretzel day’ at school. The local bakery would bring in some obscene amount of fresh pretzels and they were sold for 10 cents each. Parents would give you an extra two quarters with your lunch money and you’d bring home a brown paper bag of pretzels for your family.

The worst part of the '93 ice storms is that we kept having snow days on what would have been Pretzel Day.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:49 AM on May 31, 2018 [15 favorites]

I have vivid memories of driving into Philly from the suburbs or NJ after we moved and buying soft pretzel from a guy standing at the stop light right before the Vine Street Expressway. He had a cart and huge paper bags stuffed with the pretzels. I hated the big chunky bits of salt on them and would wipe them off. Those guys don't seem to be around anymore and I miss them.

Also, I had no idea that there was a soft pretzel bakery like around the corner from where I used to live in Fishtown. I did live next to a sauerkraut factory though, which I was not excited about at all (they were also my landlords).
posted by runcibleshaw at 10:01 AM on May 31, 2018 [6 favorites]

Oh gosh, the salt bits. Now I'm hungry.
posted by lumensimus at 10:03 AM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

It's kind of refreshing to see a human interest food story about "we do [food thing] better than anyone else! No really, our [food things] are special, not like the ones where you're from!" that isn't about New York City.
posted by yhbc at 10:09 AM on May 31, 2018 [19 favorites]

It's kind of refreshing to see a human interest food story about "we do [food thing] better than anyone else! No really, our [food things] are special, not like the ones where you're from!" that isn't about New York City.

Agreed, now let's see profiles of scrapple and pork roll.
posted by runcibleshaw at 10:17 AM on May 31, 2018 [14 favorites]

From the photos in the article, it's a different shape. Add the significantly different proportions and, given how persnickety people get about Real Bagels/Pizza/Whatever, I can easily see how it would be considered a different beast.
posted by inconstant at 10:29 AM on May 31, 2018

I haven't had carbs in almost two weeks. I want all of the pretzels.
posted by elsietheeel at 10:32 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

My parents once picked up a box of pretzels from Federal Baking Company - maybe 70 pretzels or so - - and then drove them up to my college on Parents Weekend and dropped them off with me at the dorm. It was about a six-hour drive; they had them under a blanket in the car, so they were still kind of warm.

Everyone loved me that day. Also, people not from Philly didn't know that pretzels are dirt cheap, so my parents looked more generous than they are. IIRC the going rate from some guy on the street who didn't wash his hands was 35 cents or three for a buck; I think the bulk price from the bakery at the time was seven for a buck.

Now I live in Atlanta, where I can find decent cheese steak, but not pretzels, and forget about people even understanding what wooder ice is. I have a tiny baby and wonder what food I'll be bringing to her in 2036.
posted by madcaptenor at 10:41 AM on May 31, 2018 [8 favorites]

I'm 75 and grew up in South Philly over my Great Grandfather's butcher shop. It was across the street from my elementary school (A.S. Jenks). Every School day I would walk through the shop and pick up 2 cents Gran'pop would set out for me. At recess the guy in the push cart full of pretzels would be there and I would hand him the 2 cents for a strip of 5 pretzels and I would slather yellow mustard on them and gobble them up. That's what the author forgot, the mustard.
posted by shnarg at 10:46 AM on May 31, 2018 [24 favorites]

Agreed, now let's see profiles of scrapple and pork roll.

Pork roll previously on MetaFilter.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:46 AM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

My office is just outside Philadelphia, and we have a vendor who brings us a giant paper bag of soft pretzels and a fresh bottle of mustard every few weeks. I don't even know what he supplies to the company, but I love him. If you get in early enough the next morning, you can microwave one of the day-old pretzels and enjoy it with your coffee. Sure, it's rock hard, but I'm not passing it up because of that!
posted by gladly at 11:27 AM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Whenever I want to feel old, I remember when I was a kid in the Philly burbs in the 80s and there was a weekly ‘pretzel day’ at school.

My mom was the PTA Pretzel Lady when I was in first grade and it was such a moment of pride for me then I still smile at it.

I work in Philly. I should get a pretzel on the way home.
posted by kimberussell at 11:50 AM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

Every now and then Metafilter sets out to remind me of another thing I had forgotten I miss about Philly.

And shnarg is right. You can eat Philly pretzels without mustard, but why would you?
posted by 256 at 12:00 PM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

Shout out to Cinnaminson, NJ's Mart Pretzel. No, not Pretzel Mart. So named because they relocated from the sadly demolished Pennsauken Mart.
posted by whuppy at 12:12 PM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

I like them hot and fresh, but also after they've sat for a bit and the steam has dissolved the salt into them.
posted by whuppy at 12:14 PM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Also, the good ones are chewy like a proper bagel.

Oh wait, I got that backwards:

NY bagels wish they were soft pretzels.
posted by whuppy at 12:20 PM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

My dad grew up in Philly. When I lived in NYC and traveled back and forth to Harrisburg I always had to grab a bag of pretzels at 30th St. Station for him.
posted by lagomorphius at 12:29 PM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

A soft pretzel with a cup of cheese sauce was my lunch pretty much every day back in Philly Catholic school. That or cheese fries.

My mom would buy pretzels from a vendor standing on the median on Roosevelt Blvd, on her drive to work.
posted by medeine at 12:33 PM on May 31, 2018 [3 favorites]

> A proper Philadelphia soft pretzel is cold, sold from a cart on the street or sold at your field hockey game, a little clammy, and slightly stale. That is to say, terrible, but a sort of food thing.

This was my introduction to Philly pretzels and they puzzled me. Then I started getting them direct from the bakery, hot from the oven, at 2 am on the way home from the bar. Holy shit. What a conversion experience.
posted by desuetude at 1:20 PM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

NY bagels wish they were soft pretzels.

They both need to be dipped in drain cleaner before baking to turn out right, so there is a definite kinship.
posted by TedW at 2:43 PM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

Warm, Amish pretzels from the Reading Terminal market, freshly baked and dripping in butter, were my jawn. But, I also ate a ton of cold clammy and hard pretzels with yellow mustard, and I still have a spot in my belly reserved for those salty dough bombs.
posted by nikoniko at 3:09 PM on May 31, 2018

A proper Philadelphia soft pretzel is cold, sold from a cart on the street or sold at your field hockey game, a little clammy, and slightly stale. That is to say, terrible, but a sort of food thing.

I do not disagree. Either end of the Spectrum. They're hot when you get them before going in, they're cold on the way out.

They both need to be dipped in drain cleaner before baking to turn out right, so there is a definite kinship.

I used run a Hot Sam Pretzels. AND our supplier was J&J, and we ordered pre-dipped, so our pretzel over needed to be filled daily with sodium hydroxide solution we brewed up in a bucket in the back sink. Sure they SAY that you can use baking soda or something, but it's never been the same without a good lye bath before proofing, salting, and baking. "Hey, do you want a coke with that?"

And if I was going to the movies after we closed, I'd run a batch and hookup the guys at the theater.

Good times... Good times...
posted by mikelieman at 3:21 PM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

I just tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to my Michigan-born wife why I was made nostalgic by the above description of a proper Philadelphia soft pretzel as being truly awful, and then I struggled to describe how they are not simply SuperPretzels (“imagine one of those, but left outside overnight”)
posted by DoctorFedora at 3:44 PM on May 31, 2018 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I miss sitting in traffic on Roosevelt and seeing the pretzel guy and everyone in the car scrounging for change for "dinner".
Good times.
posted by evilDoug at 4:03 PM on May 31, 2018

Pretzel day! I miss that. And pretzel fundraisers. And the pretzels you could buy from homeless people at traffic lights. Those were the best ones.

I introduced Philly soft pretzels to my north-Jersian college roommate and she wanted to know why they were so damp. Sigh.
posted by dayintoday at 4:07 PM on May 31, 2018

I struggled to describe how they are not simply SuperPretzels (“imagine one of those, but left outside overnight”)

I think if you microwave a (J&J) Superpretzel for HALF the specified time, you'll get it in the right stadium ( I'm thinking JFK, but that's just me )
posted by mikelieman at 4:11 PM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]

My favorite childhood pretzel memory is standing for hours freezing cold watching the Mummers Parade and locating a cart selling steaming hot pretzels. Ah the hot salty goodness slathered with yellow mustard. I'm on a train heading to NYC right now and we go right through Philadelphia. Wish I had enough time at 30th Street Station to get one.
posted by gudrun at 4:18 PM on May 31, 2018 [2 favorites]

I’m sitting here tasting salt and yellow mustard and damp pretzel in my memories and thinking it’s a shame that I’m about a 7 hour drive from a good pretzel.

On the other hand, I’m *only a 7 hour drive from a good pretzel*, and I have no weekend plans...
posted by okayokayigive at 5:21 PM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

i'm sitting here plowing through a bag of Bachman's Pretzel Twists at an alarming rate of speed because this thread set off such a craving and plain ol' hard pretzels were the closest i could get
posted by halation at 5:40 PM on May 31, 2018

A proper Philly soft pretzel HAS to be purchased from a street vendor. Just as veloute sauce base is "finished" with a liaison of egg yolk and cream, authentic Philly soft pretzels are finished with a hint of SEPTA bus exhaust. Yes, they have to be eaten with mustard. Yes, that mustard has to be yellow. No, there exists no faster fast food. No, there exists no more satisfying food at a comparable price. And no other food is the unanimous choice of learners from elementary school students through postdoctorate fellows. If you want a pretzel in Philly, just look for a campus.
posted by jgbmlg at 5:43 PM on May 31, 2018 [6 favorites]

In addition to the weekly pretzel days at my elementary school, I remember when I was really little, like 3 or 4, my dad would take me to Rickels, a local Home Depot-style hardware store, and they sold soft pretzels from a folding table at the entrance. The thread title is right--I cannot express how much I love fresh, warm end pieces with spicy brown mustard.

People keep expressing some kind of Stockholm syndrome love for them once they get old and crappy, and that's fine, you do you. Somebody's gotta eat the ones that have gone stale, and it's better you than me, I guess.
posted by elsilnora at 6:53 PM on May 31, 2018 [4 favorites]

Weirdly, I was fond of the soft pretzels sold in the Woolworth's in Center City, which were not actually Philadelphia soft pretzels. You got them out of a heated case. They were more like the kind you buy frozen in the grocery store. That was a proper Woolworth's. It had a lunch counter.
posted by Peach at 7:45 PM on May 31, 2018

no idea if these are correct, but I live in phila and I made them, so it has to be minimums 50% right?

bonus-possible-heresy: Nathan's deli-style mustard is my jawn these days.

(recipe here)
posted by dorian at 10:18 PM on May 31, 2018

(oh, and DO NOT buy the wawa pretzels (yes, yes, I know they look very pretty and the price is tempting esp. if you buy 3) - unless you are planning to make acquacotta at some time later (point of fact, I currently have 2 large pretzels from a local dive, I forget the brand but I can dig up a photo of the case in which they come pre-stale-ified, and the bar gives them out for free or at least as many as you can stomach (complete with 2 different kinds of horrific mustard in those translucent food service bottles) - and I've had these 2 pretzels just sitting around in a paper bag for at least a month, and sooner or later will provide the basis for stone soup...))
posted by dorian at 10:43 PM on May 31, 2018

When my family moved from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia in the mid-1960s there were several food thrills awaiting us. The first, experienced on a cold November afternoon as we stood on a deserted wharf looking at Admiral Dewey’s flagship, was the pretzels—which we purchased from a street vendor who inexplicably appeared in what was an otherwise deserted part of town. When he offered mustard, we were baffled but game, and soft pretzels quickly became a family fave which I always associated with the smell of the Delaware River.

The other food things were (a) scrapple, which we never did embrace, and (b) water ice. Yes, I know that the latter is just Italian ice, but somehow in the Philadelphia area it was ubiquitous and the perfect antidote to the long, sticky summers. You could get water ice everywhere. Where I live now there are rock-hard cups of the stuff in the grocery—definitely not the same.

Pretzels and water ice. I miss them both. Scrapple, not so much.
posted by kinnakeet at 3:27 AM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

And no other food is the unanimous choice of learners from elementary school students through postdoctorate fellows. If you want a pretzel in Philly, just look for a campus.

I definitely went through a phase in grad school where two pretzels and a coke were lunch. I'm not sure if this was because I was cheap or because I was lazy.
posted by madcaptenor at 4:57 AM on June 1, 2018 [1 favorite]

Scrapple is awesome if properly fried, but should be eaten with pancake syrup drizzled on it. As a pre-"jawn" Philadelphian, my husband also likes Taylor Pork Roll, which to me smells like fried armpit.
posted by Peach at 10:25 AM on June 1, 2018 [4 favorites]

What I find fascinating about food in general is how something that starts out as a prosaic nod to some part of the production process, eventually becomes a desirable—even obsessively perfected—quality of the food.

I mean, pretzels in general probably originated as a way to bake bread faster and with less fuel than a loaf of bread. (It takes more effort to make a pretzel, but they cook in a lot less time due to the surface area.) I can't quite figure out where the lye thing came from, but the Philly pretzel shape is distinct from the bigger and loopier soft pretzels, because they were pushed together as part of the mechanized process that Federal introduced in the 19th century. But that shape—and the resulting way that you tear them apart—is, I think, part of what makes them softer and distinct as a food from the average street pretzel you'd get somewhere else.

You see the same thing with whiskey: people obsess over (and go to great cost and expense to perform) the aging process for American bourbon, but it originated almost incidentally as a result of the way bulk liquor was transported in casks, and in particular the ready availability of cooperage wood in the same areas where whiskey was produced. It makes you wonder if in some parallel timeline, there's an alternate Earth where people obsess over spirits flavored with pine pitch or coal tar or something, because for some reason that had been the least-offensive way of moving white liquor around at some particularly influential moment in history.

And it's always neat to wonder what odd bit of present day corner-cutting or supply chain optimization is going to lead to some hipster chef at a farm-to-table restaurant decades from now to obsess over the authenticity of their early-21st-century cuisine. ("We imbue all our recipes with the deepest respect for their original ingredients, including the finest railcar-aged High Fructose Corn Syrup, made from heirloom Monsanto HarvXtraTM #2 Field Corn, harvested using authentic petro-diesel powered machinery…")
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:02 AM on June 1, 2018 [5 favorites]

here's an alternate Earth where people obsess over spirits flavored with pine pitch or coal tar.

I mean, Laphroaig.

but I get that you're talking white liquors. My fond recollection of Laphroaig is that it tasted like licking a dock pylon.

I like soft pretzels and I love Philly. I love how a city just has a word: "jawn". It's very like Philly to have a word.
posted by Divine_Wino at 8:30 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

I can't quite figure out where the lye thing came from...

Lye rolls in the old country.
posted by TedW at 8:47 PM on June 1, 2018 [3 favorites]

Divine_Wino dude, I miss you so much where you at?

also, ugh, it is very like phila here
- we are driving over horrendous potholes every day
- we are driving with horrific drivers who cannot even comprehend what a stop-line is every day

stop at an actual stop sign? oh lol best hope you din't get someone out their car trying to smack you up.

I will stop at your stupid fucking jawn right there, eejits.
posted by dorian at 1:48 AM on June 2, 2018

Most think "jawn" is on its way out. It popped up in the early 90s but has achieved such popularity that non-Philadelphians seized on it, which is the kiss of death for actual vernacular.
posted by Peach at 4:47 AM on June 2, 2018 [2 favorites]

Peach no one I know here actually uses the word. like, they were born here ~40 years ago, grew up here, still live here. they know how to correctly use the word, and even more importantly inherently know how to pronounce it.

but, yeah, they rarely use it, and even if then only with a sort of ironic twist of the eyebrows, because that's exactly how over they subconsciously know it is.

if I try to use it, they're all "d'awww!!! squee! <3 how adorable!" and I'm lucky if I can even get the pronunciation half-right. then again, these are people apparently in love with the way I say, "water."
posted by dorian at 7:02 PM on June 2, 2018 [1 favorite]