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External Websites
- MedicineNet - How Healthy is Eating Pretzels?
- The Spruce Eats - History of Pretzels
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - “These pretzels are making me thirsty” so I’ll have water tomorrow: A partial replication and extension of adults’ induced-state episodic foresight
- Healthline - Are Pretzels a Healthy Snack? Here’s What a Dietitian Says
- Food and Wine - The Religious History of Pretzels
verifiedCite
While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies.Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions.
Select Citation Style
Feedback
Thank you for your feedback
Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article.
External Websites
- MedicineNet - How Healthy is Eating Pretzels?
- The Spruce Eats - History of Pretzels
- National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - “These pretzels are making me thirsty” so I’ll have water tomorrow: A partial replication and extension of adults’ induced-state episodic foresight
- Healthline - Are Pretzels a Healthy Snack? Here’s What a Dietitian Says
- Food and Wine - The Religious History of Pretzels
Written and fact-checked by
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
pretzel, a brittle, glazed-and-salted cracker of German or Alsatian origin. Made from a rope of dough typically fashioned into the shape of a loose knot, the pretzel is briefly boiled and then glazed with egg, salted, and baked. Pretzels are customarily eaten as a snack with beer.
In many large cities the soft pretzel is a familiar commodity sold hot, often with mustard, from the pushcarts of street vendors. Dry, nut-brown hard pretzels in a variety of configurations, including thick and thin knots, sticks, and nuggets, are commercially packaged in the United States and elsewhere and marketed on a wide scale.
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