A bagel
A
bagel is a
bread product, traditionally shaped by hand into the form of a ring from
yeasted
wheat dough, roughly hand-sized, which is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked.
The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior. Bagels are often topped with seeds baked on the outer crust, with the traditional ones being
poppy or
sesame seeds. Some also may have
salt sprinkled on their surface, and there are also a number of different dough types such as whole-grain or rye.
[Encyclopædia Britannica (2009) , retrieved February 24, 2009 from Encyclopædia Britannica Online ]Bagels have become a popular bread product in the
United States,
Canada and the
United Kingdom, especially in cities with large
Jewish populations, many with different ways of making bagels. Like other bakery products, bagels are available (either fresh or frozen, and often in many flavour varieties) in many major supermarkets in those countries.
The basic roll-with-a-hole design is hundreds of years old and has other practical advantages besides providing for a more even cooking and baking of the dough: the hole could be used to thread string or dowels through groups of bagels, allowing for easier handling and transportation and more appealing seller displays.
History
A
sbitenshchik (left) selling
bubliks and
baranki (19th century)
Contrary to common legend, the bagel was not created in the shape of a stirrup to commemorate the victory of Poland’s King Jan Sobieski over the
Ottoman Turks in 1683. It was actually invented much earlier in
Kraków,
Poland, as a competitor to the
obwarzanek, a lean bread of wheat flour designed for
Lent. In the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, the
bajgiel became a staple of the Polish national diet.
There was a tradition among many observant Jewish families to make bagels on Saturday evenings at the conclusion of the Sabbath. Due to
Jewish Sabbath restrictions, they were not permitted to cook during the period of the Sabbath and, compared with other types of bread, bagels could be baked very quickly as soon as it ended.
That the name originated from
beugal (old spelling of
Bügel, meaning bail/bow or bale) is considered plausible by many, both from the similarities of the word and because traditional handmade bagels are not perfectly circular but rather slightly stirrup-shaped. (This, however, may be due to the way the boiled bagels are pressed together on the baking sheet before baking.) Also, variants of the word
beugal are used in
Yiddish and
Austrian German to refer to a round loaf of
bread (see
Gugelhupf for an Austrian cake with a similar ring shape), or in southern German dialects (where
beuge refers to a pile, e.g.:
holzbeuge, or
woodpile). According to the Merriam-Webster's dictionary, 'bagel' derives from the transliteration of the Yiddish
'beygl', which came from the
Middle High German 'böugel' or ring, which itself came from
'bouc' (ring) in
Old High German, similar to the
Old English 'bēag' '(ring), and
'būgan' (to bend or bow). Similarly another
etymology in the Webster's New World College Dictionary says that the Middle High German form was derived from the
Austrian German 'beugel', a kind of croissant, and was similar to the German
'bügel', a stirrup or ring.
In the
Brick Lane district and surrounding area of
London, England, bagels, or as locally spelled
"beigels" have been sold since the middle of the 19th century. They were often displayed in the windows of bakeries on vertical wooden dowels, up to a metre in length, on racks.
Bagels were brought to the
United States by immigrant Jews, with a thriving business developing in
New York City that was controlled for decades by
Bagel Bakers Local 338, which had contracts with nearly all bagel bakeries in and around the city for its workers who prepared all the bagels by hand. The bagel came into more general use throughout
North America in the last quarter of the 20th century, at least partly due to the efforts of bagel baker
Harry Lender and Florence Sender, who pioneered automated production and distribution of frozen bagels in the 1960s.
In modern times Canadian-born astronaut
Gregory Chamitoff is the first person known to have taken a batch of
bagels into space on his 2008
Space Shuttle mission to the
International Space Station. His shipment consisted of 18 sesame seed bagels.
Preparation
At its most basic, traditional bagel dough contains wheat flour (without germ or bran), salt, water, and yeast leavening.
Bread flour or other high
gluten flours are preferred to create the firm and dense but spongy bagel shape and chewy texture.
Most bagel recipes call for the addition of a sweetener to the dough, often barley malt (syrup or crystals), honey, sugar, with or without eggs, milk or butter.
Leavening can be accomplished using either a
sourdough technique or using commercially produced yeast.
Bagels are traditionally made by:
- mixing and kneading the ingredients to form the dough
- shaping the dough into the traditional bagel shape, round with a hole in the middle
- proofing the bagels for at least 12 hours at low temperature (40-50 degrees F = 4.5-10°C)
- baking at between 175°C and 315°C (about 350 to 600 degrees F)
It is this unusual production method which is said to give bagels their distinctive taste, chewy texture, and shiny appearance. In the context of Jewish culture, this process provided an additional advantage in that it could be followed without breaking the no-work rule of the
Sabbath. The dough would be prepared on the day before, chilled during the day, and boiled and baked only after the end of the Sabbath, therefore using the Sabbath as a productive time in the bagel-making process (as the dough needs to slowly rise in a chilled environment for a time before cooking).
In recent years, a variant of this process has emerged, producing what is sometimes called the steam
bagel. To make a steam bagel, the process of boiling is skipped, and the bagels are instead baked in an oven equipped with a steam injection system. In commercial bagel production, the steam bagel process requires less labor, since bagels need only be directly handled once, at the shaping stage. Thereafter, the bagels need never be removed from their pans as they are refrigerated and then steam-baked. The steam-bagel is not considered to be a genuine bagel by purists, as it results in a fluffier, softer, less chewy product more akin to a
finger roll that happens to be shaped like a bagel.
Varieties
"Everything" bagel with a variety of seasonings
The two most prominent styles of traditional bagel in North America are the
Montreal-style bagel and the New York-style bagel. The Montreal bagel contains
malt and sugar with no salt; it is boiled in honey-sweetened water before baking in a wood-fired oven; and it is predominantly either of the poppy "black" or sesame "white" seeds variety. The New York bagel contains salt and malt and is boiled in water prior to baking in a standard oven. The resulting New York bagel is puffy with a moist crust, while the Montreal bagel is smaller (though with a larger hole), crunchier, and sweeter.
Poppy seeds are sometimes called by their Yiddish name, spelled either
mun or
mon (written מאָן) which is very similar to the German word for poppy,
Mohn, as used in
Mohnbrötchen. The traditional London bagel (or beigel as it is spelled) is harder and has a coarser texture with air bubbles.
Bagels around the world
thumb|right|A "pseudo-bagel" (the hole does not go all the way through) from a Muslim restaurant in Guangzhou, China
Bagels were derived from the similarly shaped
doughnuts and from the similarly textured
bialys, primarily because of the cooking method amongst other differences. Russian
bubliks are very similar to bagels, but are somewhat bigger, have a wider hole, and are drier and chewier.
Pretzels, especially the large soft ones, are also similar to bagels, the main exceptions being the shape and the alkaline water bath that makes the surface dark and glossy.
In
Russia,
Belarus and
Ukraine, the
bublik is essentially a much larger bagel. Other ring-shaped breads known among
East Slavs are
baranki (smaller and drier) and
sushki (even smaller and drier).
In
Lithuania bagels are called
'riestainiai', and sometimes by their Slavic name
'baronkos'.
A few "Vesirinkeli" from Finland.
In
Finland Vesirinkeli are small rings of yeast leavened wheat bread. They are placed in salted boiling water before being baked. They are often eaten for breakfast toasted and buttered. They are available in several different varieties (sweet or savoury) in supermarkets.
The
Uyghurs of
Xinjiang,
China enjoy a form of bagel known as
girdeh nan (from
Persian, meaning round bread) , which is one of several types of
nan, the bread eaten in Xinjiang. It is uncertain if the Uyghur version of the bagel was developed independently of Europe or was the actual origin of the bagels that appeared in Central Europe.
In
Turkey, a salty and fattier form is called
açma. The ring-shaped
simit is sometimes marketed as a Turkish Bagel, and is very similar to the twisted sesame-sprinkled bagels pictured being sold in early 20th century Poland. Simit are also sold on the street in baskets or carts, like bagels were then.
In some parts of
Austria, ring-shaped pastries called
beugel are sold in the weeks before
Easter. Like a bagel, the yeasted wheat dough, usually flavored with
caraway, is boiled before baking. However, the
beugel is crispy and can be stored for weeks. Traditionally it has to be torn apart by two individuals before eating.
The pronunciation and spelling of
"bagel" varies among communities. In Canada, for instance, people from
Toronto and
Montreal, pronounce it like
bay-gel, (the correct Yiddish pronunciation) -whereas people from the smaller towns of Northern Ontario and the East coast of Canada tend to pronounce the first syllable as
bag-el, as in in 'shopping
bag' . In addition, some American bagel makers (particularly New England producer Zeppy's) spell the word "baigel", while maintaining the typical pronunciation.
In the
UK, bagels are popular in
London,
Leeds,
Belfast, and
Manchester. In
Newcastle, the most popular seller of bagels is named Bagel of the North, with reference to the
Angel of the North. On
Brick Lane in East
London there are two long established bagel shops in which the item is spelled
beigel, with pronunciation to match.
In
Romania, bagels are popular topped with sesame seeds or large salt grains, especially in the central area of the country, and the recipe does not contain any added sweetener. They are sold as
covrigi.
"Bagel" is also a
Yeshivish term for
'one who sleeps 12 hours straight', a reference to the fact that bagel dough has to "rest" for at least 12 hours between mixing and baking.
Bagels can be found in
Japan but often tend to be sweet rather than savory.
Non-traditional doughs and shapes
While normally and traditionally made of
yeasted
wheat, in the late 20th century, many variations on the bagel flourished. Non-traditional versions which change the dough recipe include
pumpernickel,
rye,
sourdough,
bran,
whole wheat, and multigrain. Other variations change the flavor of the dough, often using
salt,
onion,
garlic,
egg,
cinnamon,
raisin,
blueberry,
chocolate chip,
cheese, or some combination of the above. Green bagels are sometimes created for
St. Patrick's Day.
Many corporate chains now offer bagels in such flavors as chocolate chip and French toast.
Sandwich bagels have been popularized since the late 1990s by bagel specialty shops such as
Bruegger's and
Einstein Brothers, and fast food restaurants such as
McDonald's.
Breakfast bagels, a softer, sweeter variety usually sold in fruity or sweet flavors (
e.g., cherry, strawberry, cheese, blueberry, cinnamon-raisin, chocolate chip, maple syrup, banana and nuts) are commonly sold by large supermarket chains; these are usually sold sliced and are intended to be prepared in a toaster.
A flat bagel, known as a 'Flagel', can be found in a few locations in and around New York City and Toronto. According to a review attributed to New York's
Village Voice food critic Robert Seitsema, the Flagel was first created by
Brooklyn's Tasty Bagels deli in the early 1990s.
A trademarked, sweet variant of the bagel known as the “Fragel" is produced by the Ann Arbor,
Michigan, based Bagel Factory, Inc. A special, bagel-based dough is fried and coated with
cinnamon sugar.
A sandwich chain called
Così has created square bagels, or
'squagels', as an alternative to round bagels in crafting bagel sandwiches which are often filled with
luncheon meats; square bagels are also sold by several chains in North America.
In popular culture
- Bagels & Yox was a 1951 comedy/variety theater revue that successfully played in New York's Broadway district at the Holiday Theatre from September 12th, in addition to running in Atlantic City and Miami Beach. It was produced by Al Beckman and John Pramsky
Large scale commercial sales
United States supermarket sales
According to the
American Institute of Baking (AIB), Year 2008 supermarket sales (52 week period ending Jan. 27, 2009) of the top eight leading commercial fresh (not frozen) bagel brands in the United States:
- totalled to US$430,185,378 based on 142,669,901 package unit sales.
[ Baking Management (2008) [https://www.aibonline.org/resources/statistics/2008bagels.htm AIB website data: Bagels 2008], from Baking Management, p.10, March 2009, Statistics from Information Resources, retrieved 2009-03-23 from American Institute of Baking website: Bagels 2008 updated to March 10, 2009;]
- the top eight leading brand names for the above were (by order of sales): Thomas' (George Weston Ltd.), Sara Lee, (private label brands) Pepperidge Farm, (George Weston Ltd.), Lenders Bagel Shop (Kraft), and [https://westernbagel.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?search=action&category=ALTB&keywords=all&template=products/TheAlternativeBagel.html The Alternative Bagel] (Western Bagel).
Further, AIB-provided statistics for the 52 week period ending May 18, 2008, for refrigerated/frozen supermarket bagel sales for the top 10 brand names totalled US$50,737,860, based on 36,719,977 unit package sales.
[ Baking Management (2008) [https://www.aibonline.org/resources/statistics/2008bagels.htm AIB website data: Bagels 2008], from Redbook, July 2008, p.20, Statistics from Information Resources, retrieved 2009-03-23 from American Institute of Baking website: Bagels 2008'' updated to March 10, 2009] See also
