Everything about a bagel is great, except one thing
Plate up You need to get past the hole, of course. When you're preparing a bagel, when you're schmearing it with cream-cheese and topping it with lox; when you're sprinkling on some dill or maybe capers; topping it with the rest of the bagel and then slicing it in half, you have to understand that it doesn't make complete sense. There's a hole in the middle of your sandwich. Some of the filling might fall out.
But therein lies the only possible downfall of the bagel, the dense, chewy, doughnut-shaped bread rolls invented in Poland and made famous in the US. Bagels are based on simple wheat flour dough shaped into a long sausage and then bent into a circle, before proofing for 12 hours or so, then being boiled, and finally baked. This process makes bagels chewy on the inside and crisp on the outer, and the perfect carrier for various sweet or savoury flavourings, not to mention a range of sandwich-style fillings.
And the reason for the hole? There are various theories – to help it cook evenly, the give it a thicker crust, even to allow bagels to be carried on long sticks – but no one is completely sure.
First serve There's a widely accepted history of bagels: they were invented in Krakow around the early 17th century, and soon became a staple of Polish cuisine. From there, things get murky. Were they inspired by or a knock-off of German pretzels? Is the name derived from the Yiddish term beugal, itself derived from a southern German dialect? Or is it from the word beygl, another old Yiddish term derived from the Old High German word for 'ring'? The next thing we know for sure is that Polish Jewish migrants brought bagels to the US in the 19th century, and by the 1960s mass-produced bagels became popular, despite the New York Times, in 1952, referring to them as 'an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis'.
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Order there The classic New York bagel, and one that's still incredibly popular, is served at Russ & Daughters, open since 1914 (russanddaughters.com).
Order here In Sydney, Avner's is an eternally popular bagel joint (avners.com.au). In Melbourne, head to Schmucks Bagels (schmucksbagels.com.au). And in Brisbane, go for O Bagel (obagel.com.au).
Bake it If you want to have a crack at making your own, try following Betül Tunç's step-by-step recipe at Good Food.
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