The croissant, breakfast of rebels | The Economist - 1843

Few baked goods inspire such bitter partisanship. And don’t even think about trying to make them at home

"Everyone knows the croissant story, don’t they? Viennese bakers, under siege by the Ottomans in 1683, are slaving over their ovens in the small hours when they hear scrapings and rumblings underground. They raise the alarm, the guards apprehend a gang of stealthily tunnelling Turks, and the bakers are rewarded with the right to bake pastries in the shape of Islam’s crescent moon flag. And if it wasn’t the Viennese bakers in 1683, it was the Hungarian bakers of Budapest when their city was besieged by Muslim armies three years later. And if it wasn’t them it was some other plucky gang of Christian bakers, dedicatedly turning out patriotic pastries and victory viennoiseries. And if...

Few baked goods inspire such bitter partisanship. And don’t even think about trying to make them at home

"Everyone knows the croissant story, don’t they? Viennese bakers, under siege by the Ottomans in 1683, are slaving over their ovens in the small hours when they hear scrapings and rumblings underground. They raise the alarm, the guards apprehend a gang of stealthily tunnelling Turks, and the bakers are rewarded with the right to bake pastries in the shape of Islam’s crescent moon flag. And if it wasn’t the Viennese bakers in 1683, it was the Hungarian bakers of Budapest when their city was besieged by Muslim armies three years later. And if it wasn’t them it was some other plucky gang of Christian bakers, dedicatedly turning out patriotic pastries and victory viennoiseries. And if it wasn’t them…