Pumpernickel

This article is about the bread. For other uses, see Pumpernickel (disambiguation).

Pumpernickel bread is a type of sourdough from Germany that is made with a combination of rye flour and rye meal (more coarsely ground than flour).

Pumpernickel dough is very dark in color when baked, (even when compared to breads made with flour that includes bran). The finished product tastes very similar to rye bread, but differs in that pumpernickel recipes often call for molasses, helping to give pumpernickel its dark color. Pumpernickel is about three times as dense as wheat bread.

Traditional German pumpernickel contains no coloring agents (such as molasses), instead relying on the Maillard reaction to produce the characteristic deep brown color, sweet dark chocolate coffee flavor, and earthy aroma. Loaves produced in this manner require 16 to 24 hours of baking in a low temperature (about 250°F or 120°C) steam-filled oven. They tend to have a much more intense flavor than the approximations provided by adding molasses, coffee, cocoa powder, or other darkening agents employed by many bakeries. Other than in a few traditional German bakeries, most bakers eschew the long baking time for obvious economic reasons and, in addition to coloring and flavor agents, often add wheat flour (to provide gluten structure and increase rising) and commercial yeast (to quicken the rise compared to a traditional sourdough). The result is a loaf that resembles commercial rye bread with darker coloring. Many bakers also add a significant amount of caraway seeds, providing an alternate flavor that is now characteristic of many commercial pumpernickel (and light rye) breads.

Pumpernickel loaves are almost always baked without a baking pan, resulting in a rounded loaf. Pumpernickel bread is often difficult to find in the United States at supermarkets and smaller groceries, but can be found throughout Europe and the United Kingdom.

Pumpernickel bread was polarising opinion as long ago as the 16th century. In a letter to a friend in 1586, the Dutch classicist Justus Lipsius wrote: "When presented with pumpernickel, with its unusual colour, weight and shape, you would scarcely believe that what you have before you is bread. Black, coarse, and bitter to taste, it comes in clods, five feet in length, which an adult can barely lift with his own hands. It is, indeed, an impoverished people that is obliged to eat its own soil. ^*"

The French abbot Guillaume-André-René Baston, who lived for a time in the Westphalian town of Coesfeld, was more charitable in his verdict: "Pumpernickel is really rather unpleasant to look at. Never before has nature bestowed upon us two things that bear a more striking resemblance to each other than a piece of this black bread and a lump of peat. However, should you venture to sample a piece of the former, the pleasantness of its taste more than compensates for its somewhat unappetising appearance. ^*"

Debate flourishes about the origin of the word. Philologist Johann Christoph Adelung states about the Germanic origin of the word, in the vernacular, Pumpen was a New High German synonym for being flatulent, a word similar in meaning to the English "fart", and "Nickel" was a form of the name Nicholas, an appellation commonly associated with a goblin or devil (e.g., "Old Nick", a familiar name for Satan). Hence, pumpernickel is described as the "devil's fart", a definition accepted by the Stopes International Language Database the publisher Random House ^*.

The OED, however, does not commit to any particular etymology for the word. It suggests it may mean a lout or booby, but also says, "origin uncertain". Its first recorded use in English is from 1756.

This possible origin of the word pumpernickel has also been popularised by James Bond actor, Englishman Roger Moore ^*.

The most charming theory comes from a 17th-century anecdote, according to which a French horseman, stopping at a Westphalian inn, is offered a piece of black bread. Surveying the food with suspicion, he declares: "C'est bon pour Nicole" - Nicole being his horse ^*.

Pumpernickel in pop culture

Pumpernickel was often mentioned on the children's program Barney & Friends as Barney's favorite bread for sandwiches.
In the Neurotically Yours episode "AMITYVILLE TOASTER", Foamy places pumpernickel in the haunted toaster and 56 seconds later it popped up as a blueberry muffin.
Daffy Duck did a Scarlet Pimpernel parody where he was the Scarlet Pumpernickel.

External links

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Pumpernickel | Pumpernickel | Pumpernikiel

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Pumpernickel in pop culture

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