Nearly everyone, particularly in the United States, is
familiar with the bagel. However, few
people know the history of the bagel or how different today’s bagel is from
those I grew up eating. My parents owned
a Jewish delicatessen, and their bagels were wonderful!
The traditional bagel is made from high-gluten flour,
yeast, salt, water and malt. Once the
bagel dough is shaped into a circle, they are boiled in a kettle for 3 to 5
minutes on each side. After that, they
are drained and baked for about 10 minutes. Bagels are the only bread that is boiled
before it is baked. Before bagels, like so
many other foods became supersized, bagels weighed five ounces or less, and
they made a crackling sound when you bit into them.
Bagels
were baked and eaten by Eastern European Jews for centuries. When European Jews came to America, they
brought bagel bakers with them. Bagel making was a highly skilled craft. Since the Lower East Side of New York City had
the largest number of Jewish people, bagel baking thrived there, and by 1900,
there were 70 bagel bakeries on the Lower East
Side.
That little hole in the center of the bagel isn't just for
looks; it is also efficient. The bagel hole came in handy to thread multiple
bagels onto a dowel, making transport easily, especially for the street vendors
selling the doughy delights.
The huge puffed-up American bagels, with cinnamon,
raisins, onions and more, bear little resemblance to the small dense and chewy
rings of East Europe and New York City in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The vast majority of bagels in the United
States today are first steamed in an oven instead of boiled, and they are then
baked.
I still eat and enjoy bagels, but to me, only the
name remains the same as the bagels I remember from years ago.
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