Video: 12-year-old chef bakes pretzels in Yiddish

Besides cooking, Sender Glasser loves playing the trombone and playing soccer

Courtesy of the Forward

By Forverts Staff January 11, 2024

Sender Glasser, a seventh grader in Scotch Plains, New Jersey, who speaks Yiddish, Polish and English fluently, has put together a tutorial in Yiddish on how to make delicious, fluffy pretzels. The video is produced by the Forverts.

Glasser is the son of Yiddish linguist and Forverts contributor Hershl Glasser and Polish-born Yiddishist Gosha Zaremba. He likes playing and watching soccer, playing trombone, biking, and, of course, cooking.

Pretzels, which were most likely invented in northern Italy in the medieval period, became popular in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland as symbols of good luck. The recipe for the baked pastry came to the United States in the 18th century, thanks to Pennsylvania Dutch immigrants.

At the turn of the 20th century, peddlers began selling pretzels on street corners. But mass production of the snack greatly increased its availability. Today they’re sold at grocery stores, movie theaters, concert halls and sports stadiums.

Yet, as Glasser will attest, there’s nothing like making pretzels from scratch, with natural ingredients, in your own kitchen!

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups bread flour, plus extra for dusting
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
2 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 tbsp. oil, plus extra for greasing

For the glaze:

1/4 tsp. baking soda
Coarse sea salt or 2 tbsp. sesame seeds
1 egg, beaten

Rukhl Schaechter and Zach Golden are the staff of the Forverts, the Yiddish Forward.

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