Munster is a cheese, flagship of the region. Its origin is linked to the installation of monasteries in the Vosges massif in the 7th and 8th centuries. The monks who came to evangelize the region also brought their expertise in cheese making: they had to both meet the needs of their community and feed the people who came to beg at the gates of the monastery!
Moreover, the word “Munster” itself comes, most certainly from the word… “monastery” !
But this cheese has a another name, Géromé. Géromé is the patois deformation of “Gérardmer”. Manufacturing takes place around Munster for Alsace, and around Gérardmer for Lorraine. It is for this reason that even today, the names of Munster and Munster-Géromé share the same Protected designation of origin.
According to legend, the monks are also the origin of the pretzel, this crunchy Alsatian biscuit, in the shape of a knot and sprinkled with coarse salt. An invention that dates back to the Holy Roman Empire, a medieval institution that brought together Alsace, Bavaria and part of Italy.
It is impossible to really date its creation, especially since the Middle Ages lasted about 1000 years! What we do know, however, is that the word “pretzel”, which comes from German, has a Latin origin: “brachium”, which means arm in Latin. And there, we come back to a legend, credible enough to explain how it was invented: in a monastery, near the Rhine, the monk in charge of making bread would have imagined this very particular form by observing the other monks pray with their arms crossed ! If you look closely at a pretzel, you will see that it looks like two arms crossed on a chest! And since the language spoken by the monks at the time was Latin, the circle is complete…
Between the munster and the pretzel, our runners will have enough to fill their bag, without forgetting to fill up with water because both are particularly rich in salt!