Now sit down kid, cause we’re gonna talk about pumpernickel bread. It’s a heavy, slightly sweet rye bread traditionally made with sourdough starter and coarsely ground rye. It’s sometimes made with a combination of flour made from rye as well as whole rye grains.

At one time it was traditional peasant fare, but largely during the 20th century various forms became popular through delicatessens and supermarkets.

Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
Germanic
Peasant fare

The word supposedly stems from an old Bavarian term for "hard", either referring to the process used to grind the grain into flour, or the density of the final bread product. According to Langenscheidts Taschen Wörterbücher in 1956, it refers to a form of "pumping work".

Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
German for
Pumping work

The philologist Johann Christoph Adelung states that the word has an origin in the Germanic vernacular, where pumpern was a New High German synonym for being flatulent, and Nickel was a form of the name Nicholas, commonly associated with a goblin or devil (like Old Nick, a familiar name for Satan), or more generally for a malevolent spirit or demon. Hence, pumpernickel means "farting devil" or "devil's fart".

Farting devil
Farting devil
Flatulent
Evil one

Some say the word is older than its usage for this particular type of bread, and may have been used as a mocking name for a person of unrefined manners first. The change of meaning may have been caused by its use as a mocking expression for the unrefined rye bread produced by the Westphalian population

Pumpernickel
Pumpernickel
Unrefined
Unrefined

But some folks say it actually involves Napoleon, who, while invading Germany, asked for bread and was served dark Westphalian rye. Now according to the folktale, Napoleon declared that this was not suitable bread for himself, the emperor, but was bread (en francais that’s pain) for Nicole, his horse: "C'est du pain pour Nicole!". Another story says, Napoleon declared that the bread was no good for him, but was only good (that’s bon en francais) for his horse: "C'est bon pour Nicole!". However, the name Nicole is not confirmed for any of Napoleon's many horses. A "witty interpretation", proposed by seventeenth-century satirist Johann Balthasar Schtupp, was that the bread was only "good for Nicol", a nickname for a weak or puny horse.

Napoleon
Napoleon
Bonaparte
And his horse

But anyway, that’s neither here nor there now is it? Because the point I’ve been trying to make here is that pumpernickel is some daaaaaaaamn tasty stuff. It’s great for sandwiches, or toast or what have you. It’s an underrated bread with a weird story and you really ought to eat it. And now we dance the waltz of the flatulent devils...