Professor Butter Beard’s “The Book of Kells”
Knots have fascinated me ever since I could first tie my shoes. I remember tying knots that dumbfounded by parents and stymied any attempts at removing my play shoes. During summer craft camps, I spent hours creating lanyards of multi-colored plastic for keys and whistles and fantastic jewelry (or so I thought). I learned all the knots for my Cub and Boy Scout badges and super-glued them to wooden panels to show off. Through it all, I slowly learned that the concept of weaving, securely binding elements together to ensure a sense of wellbeing and protection, goes well beyond shoestrings and rope.
My fascination with knots expanded in my adult years to include the intricate beauty of Celtic knots. As I completed my graduate studies in the UK, I became obsessed with these knots that appeared carved into immense stone sculptures, pounded into shimmering metal works of silver and gold, and intricately drawn intertwining the words and images within some of the most beautiful books I have ever seen. In general, the knots’ story is a long one and shockingly global; many societies have developed motifs of endless or infinite knots. But there is the one primary characteristic of most Celtic knots—there is no obvious beginning or end.
The Book of Kells was described as “the most precious object in the western world” in the Annals of Ulster about 200 years after its creation in the 8th century CE. It is thought to be the work of unnamed Irish monks laboring probably on Iona, off western Scotland, where St. Columba founded a monastery in the 6th century CE. These medieval monasteries reproduced scripture, theological writings and chronicles through painstakingly detailed copying and illustration. These illuminated manuscripts combined holy words with a rich system of decoration including looping, braiding and knotting and visualizations of scenes and persons recognizable to the luckiest of laypeople.
These scrumptious works of art served complex purposes, from providing the illiterate with access to the stories and deep meanings to entertaining the copyists themselves. As you look and look again at the letters, you may find that a J ends as the face of a fat monk, or the L ends as a laughing monkey, or the P end as a howling dog. I hope these dedicated monks sat back and took a well-deserved break with their mug of homemade beer and possibly a cleverly knotted sourdough rosemary pretzel.
Sourdough Rosemary Pretzels
18 Pretzels
Ingredients:
2 cups warm water (just warm to touch)
½ cup of your sourdough starter (remember to feed your mother starter!)
3 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
3 Tbsp dark brown sugar
3 tsp. instant yeast (I keep a jar of Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast ready in the fridge)
6 cups bread flour
2 Tbsp Kosher salt (plus 4 tsps. for prepping the pretzels on their final rise)
1 ½ Tbsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
½ cup baking soda (dissolved in 2 quarts water)
1) In the bowl of your standing mixer, combine the warm water, your starter, the oil, brown sugar and yeast and whisk to combine. Let sit 5 minutes until alive and foamy.
2) Whisk together the flour, salt and rosemary in a small bowl. Add to the wet mix and combine with the dough hook on low speed until the dough comes together and starts to clean the side of the bowl. This should take about 6-8 minutes. On humid days, you may need to add up to ¼ cup additional flour – BUT NO MORE!
3) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and need for about 1 minute until elastic and smooth. Place the dough in a lightly oiled large bowl and cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled – about one hour.
4) Deflate the dough with your fist and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough evenly into 18 portions. This is the perfect time to use your digital scale. The last two times I made these, each portion weighed about 90 grams.
5) Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and lightly flour the surfaces.
6) To shape the pretzels: Roll each portion into a 16” rope (Ill. 1). Bend the rope into a U-shape with the ends facing away from you (Ill. 2). Twist the rope ends twice (Ill. 3). Fold the twist over the top towards the bottom of the U. Press the ends firmly into the bottom of the curve (Ill. 4). The ends should be about 1” apart. Place the pretzels on the parchment-lined pans – 9 per pan.
7) Cover the pretzels loosely with plastic wrap and let rest until puffy. This should take about 20 minutes. While the pretzels rest, dissolve ½ cup baking soda in 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil over medium high heat. Also preheat your oven to 425 degrees, placing the two racks in the upper-middle and lower-middle positions.
8) With a light touch, place three of the pretzels, knot side down, in the boiling water. After 15 seconds, flip the pretzels and let poach 15 seconds more. Lift them out with a slotted spatula and let dry on a wire rack for five minutes (knot side up). Continue until all 18 pretzels are poached.
9) Wipe the flour from the parchment-lined pans and sprinkle each pan with 1 tsp Kosher salt. Transfer the pretzels to the pans and sprinkle them with additional Kosher salt (to taste – I like my pretzels salty!). Bake the pretzels 15 to 20 minutes until mahogany brown, switching the pans halfway through. Transfer the baked pretzels to a wire rack to cool.
Illustrations drawn by Mike McQuinn - thank you!!!
