The Federal Pretzel Baking Company of South Philadelphia was the first large-scale mass production soft pretzel manufacturer in Philadelphia.
History The Federal Pretzel Baking Company began with the Nacchio family's small bakery, which they grew into a large-scale manufacturing business of soft pretzels, using a secret recipe.Philly.com Online Daily News January 23, 1991 "Pretzel Recipes To Die For Arm-twisting Won't Force These Bakers To Part With Their Secrets"
1922 Maria and Giuseppe Nacchio owned a small Italian-American Italian artisan bread bakery where Maria made baked-style soft pretzels.Philly.com online Daily News September 29, 1986 "South Philly's First Family Of Pretzels" The bakery was located in the heart of an Italian-American neighborhood, in South Philadelphia. During the 1920s, her son, Edmund, saw a business opportunity with the popularity of the soft pretzel and the family recipe. He started a factory to bake them in larger quantities. He combined the manual skills of workers hand-twisting the pretzels with a conveyor system of equipment, imported from Germany, that moved the pretzels to a soaking solution and through baking ovens. The mass production operation thereby became the Federal Pretzel Baking Company.
1940 The Department of Agriculture consulted with the American Institute of Baking and other advanced bakers of the United States of America, including the Nacchio family, to address the shortage of wheat flour. During the World War, alternative ingredients and baking techniques were developed. One alternative included using corn flour as a percentage substitute to create a mix of flour(s) for bread and other bakery goods like pretzels.
1947 The company was founded by four brothers. Following the death of Edmund in 1947, Joseph, Carmine, and Anthony continued to run the company. "Eat An Institution Today (Soft Pretzels - do not take them for granted)" November 18, 1973 (page 256 of 418). (1973, Nov 18). Philadelphia Inquirer. 1963 The record for the largest pretzel ever baked was baked by Joseph Nacchio of the Federal Pretzel Baking Company. It weighed and measured five feet across. This record was repeated, with a four-foot pretzel from Federal appearing in the 1963 Hollywood film production of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
1978 First mass-machine-produced soft pretzel was extruded at seven per second with 60,000 baked daily by Federal Pretzel Baking Company. The original 1922 recipe continued to be used, but they no longer made hand-twisted pretzels with the signature overlapping knot.New York Times November 13, 1988 "Fare of the Country; Philadelphia's Twist on the Pretzel"
1990 Second-generation daughters Anna Nacchio and Norma Nacchio-Conley (with her son Thomas) opened PretzCo, a pretzel-baking business independent of Federal Pretzel Baking Company. It was located several city blocks away. They included a backroom exhibit to document the family story as presented by the daughters of the founders. They introduced their own modernized recipe that was less crusty and softer.
1992 The Pretzel MuseumThe Independence Hall Association in Historic Philadelphia {Non-Profit} 1995 online was opened by Nacchio family member Norma Conley and partner Jean CollinsLos Angeles Times October 25, 1992 "Pretzels as Much Philadelphia as Liberty Bell" to highlight the area’s preference for Federal Pretzel Baking Company's distinctly shaped pretzels. There were three locations for the museum: it was first located at Washington and Delaware Avenue, then at 3rd and Markets streets next to Ben Franklin's historic house, and finally a fully designed museum was located just north of the historic district of the center of Philadelphia. All of the locations offered full tours of the bakery led by family member Lori Conley and family friend Helene Collins, culminating with the opportunity to twist your own pretzel. Champion hand pretzel twister Helen Hoff demonstrated how to produce 57 pretzels per minute at the first museum dedicated to the Philadelphia soft pretzel. The museum was closed prior to 1995.
2000 The family-owned and -operated company, maintained by various family members for four generations, was sold to a conglomerate business, J&J Snack Foods Pennsauken Township, NJ, in 2000.
References
External links Official web site Phillyhistory- Soft Pretzels: A Philadelphia "Culinary" Tradition Published: August 9, 2007 Phillyhistory- 1934 photo of Federal Pretzel Baking Company truck with street vendors outside of South Philadelphia High School archived record on file City of Philadelphia, Records Department.