Bagel
Boiled-then-baked ring bread from Polish Jewish tradition.
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The ring-shaped design, which has existed for centuries, ensures the dough cooks and bakes uniformly.[1]
Key facts and history
The first known mention of the Polish word bajgiel, derived from the Yiddish word bagel, occurs in Kraków in 1610.[2] Daniel Thompson started work on the first commercially viable bagel machine in 1958.[3] Bagels in the U.S. have increased in size over time, starting at around 2 oz and by 2003 averaging about 6 oz on a Manhattan coffee cart.[4] Widespread consumption of bagels across North America increased during the final quarter of the 20th century, driven by automated production methods.[3]
In the 1960s, Harry Lender, his son Murray Lender, and Florence Sender leased a bagel-shaping machine, enabling them to pioneer automated production and frozen bagel distribution.[3]
What the cited sources add
Jennifer Berg, director of New York University’s food studies graduate program, estimated that bagels have puffed up from roughly 2 ounces to 6 ounces since the turn of the 20th century.[5] A Newsday article reports that in the 1980s, the rotating rack oven was introduced, and bagel mass production replaced the boiling process with a steaming one.[5] Victoria Drey's article on Russian Beyond states that bubliki are a close relative of the bagel, usually topped with poppy seeds, and that the Jewish bagel recipe was adopted by Eastern European cuisines in the early 19th century.[6] A 2012 Consumer Reports guide states that an ideal bagel features a crust that is slightly crispy, a noticeable "pull" when torn, a chewy interior, and the taste of bread that is freshly baked.[7]
References
- Wikipedia, "Bagel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Bagel", Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009; Roden, "The Book of Jewish Food: An Odyssey from Samarkand to New York", 1996; Nathan, "A Short History of the Bagel: From ancient Egypt to Lender's", Slate, 12 November 2008; "History of the Bagel: The Hole Story", Columbia University NYC24 New Media Workshop (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bagel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Ka'ak, and the Case for the Ancient Arabic Origins of the Bagel", Serious Eats; Balinska, "The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread", Yale University Press, 2008-11-03; Balinska, "The Bagel: The Surprising History of a Modest Bread", Yale University Press, 2008-11-03; Weinzweig, "The Secret History of Bagels", theatlantic.com, March 26, 2009; Trowbridge Filippone, "Bagel History: Bagels date back to the 1600s", About.com (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bagel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Klagsburn, "Chewing Over The Bagel's Story", The Jewish Week, July 8, 2009; Hevesi, "Murray Lender, Who Gave All America a Taste of Bagels, Dies at 81", The New York Times, 2012-03-22; Rothman, "Murray Lender, the man who brought bagels to the masses", The Washington Post, 2012-03-23; "Murray Lender", The Economist, 21 April 2012 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Bagel" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Blasey, "Why have bagels become so big and bready?", Newsday, 2 August 2018; Levine, "Was Life Better When Bagels Were Smaller? (Published 2003)", The New York Times, 2003-12-31; Blasey, "Why have bagels become so big and bready?", Newsday, 2 August 2018; Levine, "Was Life Better When Bagels Were Smaller? (Published 2003)", The New York Times, 2003-12-31 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Blasey, "Why have bagels become so big and bready?", Newsday, 2 August 2018. facts only, no text reused. newsday.com
- Victoria Drey, "Bubliki: The star of a Russian-style bagel brunch", Russian Beyond, 19 March 2019. facts only, no text reused. rbth.com
- "Top Bagels – Bagel Buying Guide", Consumer Reports, July 2012. facts only, no text reused. consumerreports.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Bagel (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
More in Polish cuisine
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Bagel (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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