Off Topic: I Like Pretzels!

Pretzels are as much a part of Bavarian culture as beer. Munich put one right into its official tourism branding, “Einfach München”, where it shares the logo with the Frauenkirche and a heart. The rest of Germany bakes them too, and there are two main varieties: the Bavarian Breze and the Swabian Brezel. Both are the large, soft, lye-baked kind, not the hard snack sold as a pretzel elsewhere.

Both are registered as an EU protected geographical indication (PGI), which means there are rules covering the shape as well as the recipe. The recipes differ mainly in fat content: the Swabian one uses 4 to 8 %, the Bavarian one 1.5 to 4 %.

That higher fat content is what makes the Swabian pretzel what it is, and descriptions of the traditional recipe explicitly name lard for it. Other fats are allowed as well, but that is exactly where the problem starts: pretzels are not automatically vegetarian, let alone vegan.

No Label, No Answers

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In Germany, packaged food is the easy case: EU rules require a full ingredient list on the pack. A pretzel handed over the bakery counter is a different matter. Unpackaged goods follow separate rules here: some details have to be on display, the rest you only get by asking.

And lard is the interesting part, because it is not one of the allergens those rules require to be declared. So the absence of an allergen note says nothing about whether the pretzel was made without animal ingredients. If you want to be certain, you have to ask.

There Is a Vegan Option

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Which brings us to the good news: plenty of pretzels are made entirely without animal ingredients.

That is what vegane-brezn.de is for.

The site (in German) maps bakeries that bake vegan pretzels, so you can see where to get one nearby without guessing or asking whether there might be lard, butter, milk, whey powder or other animal ingredients in it.

The idea behind it: a vegan pretzel should be as easy to find as any other pretzel.