World Famous Bavarian Pretzels - Oktoberfest Special - Food Wishes

To make “real” Bavarian pretzels you have to use a lye dip. Do you have lye? I didn’t think so. Which is why we going to use a little trick involving baked baking soda to give our pretzels that signature, dark brown appearance, chewiness, and unique flavor. Enjoy!

[commonweakness]

Great video, but when it comes to the dipping and the gloves, just use a deeper container for the "lye" solution and place them on a slotted spatula or spider.

[briannabrittany]

Now you have to do a video for "Obatzda" - the authentic German / Bavarian beer cheese dip (Brie or Camembert, soft butter, cream cheese, paprika plain or smoked, minced shallots, chives, black pepper... and beer).

[llackmann]

Another way to eat them: Slice them horizontally, butter them and add a generous amount of fresh chopped chives

[TheIozl]

Servus & greetings from Bavaria - never saw a single pretzel here looking like one of those, although yours does look quite tasty!

[creepingbert]

Wow. You know it's serious when Chef John wears gloves.

You are the main reflection of your digit protection.

[dominicdelprincipe]

"It's best if we start with the wurst."

What a brat you are, Chef John

[hansdampf]

I was born and raised in Munich and worked at the Oktoberfest for several years in my youth. If these pretzels taste only half as good as they look, then that's a real treat. Chapeau!

[HellaAshleyAndShit]

"It's not the 1800s and no one has lye just laying around." *me who has lye just laying around* 🙃🙃🙃 did Chef John just roast me? 🥲

[ezekielbrockmann]

My very first memory is of getting lye in my eye.
One of my parents thew the scoop into tge lye and a poof went straight into my eye. It's a miracle I can see through both eyes. Chef John is serious abouhow caustic that baked Food Soda is!

[jenniferstilwell]

Lol, my German friend definitely has lye sitting around her house. And she definitely makes the best pretzels!!

[adamschaefer]

“These pretzels are making me thirsty”

[linibellini]

They look really good! Usually we don't make them with beer in the dough, we just use water and / or milk. Save the beer for a drink ;) Oh and you should definitely eat them with butter for an even tastier snack! I also love mine with cream cheese and chives or green onion. But butter is the most classic way definitely!

[briannabrittany]

Here's a tip: after shaping the pretzels, put them on your baking tray and then in the fridge for an hour before the bath. They will form a slight skin which will prevent them from unraveling when you pick them up. Plus it adds a slight crisp to the outer texture of the pretzel.

[jspuckett]

Omg... the secret is to bake the powder. Most pretzel recipes that sub soda for lye do not mention that step at all! BRILLIANT trick! Thank you! I actually have some food grade lye in the garage but, knowing how toxic it is, I've been too chicken to use it for cooking. ALL HAIL CHEF JOHN!

[crissquadros]

These look great and so yummy! There are on the thicker side, but I honestly prefer it this way than what you’d normally get of the mass produced Brezen at bakeries in Bavaria which are generally too dry. They go great with Obazda and I’d love to see your take on it, if you haven’t already made that before.

[marjoriepark]

Highly recommend close captioning so as not to be aggravated by his voice mannerisms….. His recipes and instructions are spot on. . This dude knows his cooking. Don’t hold his cadence against him. Every recipe I have tried is spot on. I just mute the sound… put close captioning on and viola!!!! All set. 😁

[Jorf]

For anyone wondering what baking the baking soda does:
You drive off water and convert the sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. If you were using the same relative amount of solid in a given amount of water, the baking soda pH would be about 8.3, and the sodium carbonate would yield a pH of about 11-12. Pure lye will go to pH 14.
Note that pH is a logarithmic scale, so something that's pH 14 is 10x more basic (caustic) than something pH 13... which means going from pH 12 to pH 14 is 100x as basic.

So as Chef John said, the baked baking soda (sodium carbonate) gets much closer to using lye than regular baking soda (sodium bicarbonate), but is also still safer. Lye is nasty stuff.

[kitchenmom]

Nice Pretzels, only a few problems. The first is that the Bavarian Bretzel may be lovely, but the superior one is the Swabian one made with spelt. I also have to point out that the Bavarian bretzel is not cut at all and does not have as big of a belly. Also, a tip is to let the Pretzel have minutes uncovered in the fridge before you dunk them. This way they are easier to handle, and they will get a better crust. Sending some love from a lye Bretzel backing Swabian.

[BakersTuts]

These will be great with some beer cheese

[WiseAilbhean]

Why I thought of Jurassic Park 1 talking about “slash across the belly”. Dr. Grant scared that boy 😂