My wife uses that recipe to make pretzels all the time. Just finished the last batch yesterday though, so no pictures to share.
She still uses baking soda for the boil, but she tweaked the recipe a bit. They turn out a bit soft/light, but if you throw them in the oven for a while to reheat the final result is about right.
You’ll need a grinder and stuffer. After that it’s easy. Grind the meat. Add the spices and cure. Stuff the casing. Cook the sausage.
…and for the big sausage you don’t even really need a stuffer. Just grind it, mix in the spices and cure, and dollop into the casing (ensuring to remove all air).
First, these are beautiful! Phil_M and I love pretty much all of AB’s applications (we do have 4 of his cookbooks). Secondly, I just recently had an adventure with this recipe, having made it a few times before.
I’m big into whole grains and I make all our bread from scratch, so I have lots of whole wheat flour on hand and prefer it to white flour in most everything. Also, Phil_M just washed his first batch of yeast, so I was eager to use it in multiple recipes. Naturally, I put the two together to attempt to make a batch of pretzels. After an hour and a half, the dough had not risen one iota in bulk fermentation…partially due to heavy whole grains, partially due to my complete lack of experience with fresh yeast…etc. I even had it sitting in the dehydrator for warmth in the winter. So, I googled how to revive “dud” dough, and found the following advice: take the dud dough and mix it with the water, sugar, salt, and twice the yeast called for in the original recipe. Mix well, then proceed as usual with the rest of the ingredients and method for a single recipe (essentially doubling it). I used all-purpose flour this time around, the dough rose beautifully, and I ended up with a ton of rich brown, 50% whole wheat pretzels!