Soft Pretzels

Hard-baked pretzels last forever. A soft-baked pretzel, like a bagel, should be eaten within hours of its emerging from the oven. In fact, soft pretzels are made very much like bagels: first boiled, then baked. While they are a popular snack in sports stadiums, on boardwalks, and at state and county fairs, they are at their best in Philadelphia, where the Center City Pretzel Company and Philadelphia Soft Pretzels sell them oven-warm. No one knows why Philadelphia’s soft pretzels are superior, but it has been speculated that it has something to do with the taste of the city water in which they are boiled.