A German ligature that originally stood for 'sz', but can be transliterated as 'ss'. It is never found in Swiss German. It looks like a B, but sounds like an S. Compare to the boring language known as English, which only has the ligatures Ã and Å, which are rarely used.
The only other flour used in traditional pumpernickel is wheat flour, which is used as an ingredient in the sourdough starter, a pre-fermented flour, water and yeast mixture that combines with the rye flour to hold the bread together.
Origins: A constant of folk etymologies seems to be that the odder a word sounds to us, the sillier the story we invent to explain its origins. Pumpernickel â the dark coarse sourdough bread we typically associate with Germany â is just such a funny-sounding name that surely it must have a funny story behind it.umpernickel â the dark coarse sourdough bread we typically associate with Germany â is just such a funny-sounding name that surely it must have a funny story behind it.