Pumpernickel Bread

There are a couple of general types of bread made and sold as "pumpernickel," but the original pumpernickel bread was developed in the Westphalia (German: Westfalen) region of Germany, at least by the 1400s, if not earlier. Some refer to it as "black bread," for the types with an especially dark color, but Germans have a couple of types of whole grain dark bread that are sometimes referred to by that name. Pumpernickel is made with very coarse rye meal (cracked whole rye), and it is then baked (see "Word History") for an incredibly long time (12 to like 20 hours) at a low temperature, which is what gives it its dark color, as there are no coloring additives that darken it in the original recipe type. The finished bread is crumbly and anywhere from dark brown to nearly black in color. Bakers eventually learned how to cut down on the time needed to produce pumpernickel, but still have it very much resemble and taste like the original recipe. They add some coloring agents, which allow the baking process to be considerably shortened. Whether this is also commonly used in Germany, I'm not certain, as many production traditions for various products remain strong in Germany. Pumpernickel is typically sold in packages with maybe 10 to 12 slices. You may find imported packages from Germany in your supermarket, but there are some of these "near genuine recipes" produced right in the U.S., including by one bakery in suburban Cleveland, called "Reinecker's Bakery." Their products are sold in some supermarkets in Greater Cleveland, besides at their own outlet.

Other pumpernickel in America is much softer and its dark color comes from additives like molasses or cocoa (I actually have a recipe which calls for both cocoa and coffee). You often see it in fairly large round loaves, or sometimes as pumpernickel (bread) rolls. It is not uncommon to see recipes that call for the round loaves to be hollowed out and used as "bowls" for various vegetable or chip dips. The softer pumpernickel, when sliced, is also easily used to make sandwiches, as opposed to the "original" or "near original," which are far too crumbly; at least in my opinion. I can't verify this, but I was told many years ago that the softer type of pumpernickel came to America with Jewish immigrants from Russia in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

When I grew up, pumpernickel was common place in my neighborhood, which had a strong German tradition dating to German immigrants arriving not long before the Civil War, clear up until just before World War One began. Ham, mettwurst or cheese were common accompaniments with pumpernickel, including a favorite of mine, Limburger cheese, although caraway studded rye bread was also frequently used for the strong smelling cheese that my older brother simply could not stand. 

 Photo of German-style pumpernickel bread, which tends toward being crumbly ...

 

 This has the soft type of pumpernickel with some pimento cheese and sliced tomato ...

WORD HISTORY: 

Bake-This word goes back to Indo European "bheg/bhog," which had the meaning "to bake or roast." This gave its Old Germanic offspring "bakanan," which meant "to bake." This then gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "bacan," which then became "baken," before the modern version. The noun form, as in "clambake," was simply derived from the verb, but seemingly not until the 1800s. The other Germanic languages have: German "backen" ('a' pronounced short as in 'father'), Low German "backen," Dutch "bakken," West Frisian "bakke," Icelandic and Swedish "baka," Danish "bage," and Norwegian "bake" (the "a" is like "ah," and the ending "e" is pronounced like "eh/ah").