Pretzel Logic

Of all the baked goods I’ve written about, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a food-historical conundrum quite like the pretzel. No other foodstuff I’ve encountered has had so many — and so many bogus — origin stories attached to it. Part of the reason is surely because it’s so old. The pretzel has been around for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, so it makes sense that like a misshapen snowball rolling down the hill of history, it’s picked up all kinds of odd junk. I’ll do my best to sort it all out for you — but no promises! I’m only one man. From Kentucky. So set the bar low.