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From: <Elaine Cyphers>
Date: Wed, 26 May 2010

To: <Cyphers Family>

Subject: NYTimes.com: Making Soft Pretzels the Old-Fashioned Way

Hmmm- do they serve these at Zack’s place?
Doesn’t it seem that we should have a “family recipe”?
Hmmm !

From: <Zack Cyphers>

Date: Thurs, 27 May 2010

To: <Cyphers Family>

Subject: Re: NYTimes.com: Making Soft Pretzels the Old-Fashioned Way

Why yes!

The pretzels at Brauhaus Schmitz, where I work, are excellent!
Here is an article about the German fare we offer, written by the premiere Philly restaurant critic, Craig LeBan:
http://www.philly.com/inquirer/columnists/craig_laban/20091004_Brauhaus_Schmitz.html#axzz0p93XKHOo
Supposedly, Philadelphians eat more pretzels than any city dwellers in the country. They are very popular here, and there are a number of chain and independent purveyors of these doughy delicacies. Street cart owners sell them to 9-5ers in the business district and to college students snacking between classes.
The most common type of pretzels available here come in these narrow oblong knots attached to many of their brethren or separated and wrapped in cellophane. I like these pretzels, but only when they’re hot and fresh. I’ve always found that they get hard, chewy and rather unpleasant when they get cold. They can be greasy, too, and I find that eating a few of these always precludes activities that require clean hands.
I do actually prefer the type of German soft pretzels that Brauhaus offers. They are brown and crispy outside (dry and not greasy) and soft and doughy inside. They pull apart easily and do not require the use of paper products afterward. As a bartender and server at Brauhaus, I offer them with two types of mustard, a sweet, course brown and a spicy yellow Bavarian mustard. Ours are made in-house by our pastry chef using a method that is most definitely traditionally German.
The long, doughy short of it is that I don’t really like what most Philadelphians consider good soft pretzels, but I think a well twisted perfectly browned German-style pretzel is the cat’s pajamas.

Prost!

Zack

PS. Is there a family recipe for pretzels somewhere in the Cyphers archive?
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