Today is National Bagel Day. 10 delicious facts about bagels:
The word “bagel” is derived from the German word “bougel,” meaning “bracelet,” which means that by definition, a bagel must be round with a hole in the Middle.
The hole serves useful purposes as well as being part of a defining shape. The hole increases the bagel’s surface area, which means it cooks faster and allows more crust to form. It also came in handy for the street sellers who used to place them on a wooden pole.
According to one legend, the bagel was invented in 1683 as a tribute to Polish king Jan Sobieski after he defended Vienna from Turkish conquest, shaped like a stirrup. However, bagels had been around for some years before that. The first mention of them dates back to 1610, in Krakow, Poland, which suggested bagels as a suitable gift for a woman who had just had a baby.
They arrived in America with Polish Jewish immigrants in the 1800s, many of whom settled in New York City, hence their popularity there.
Bagels are cooked differently to other breads. They are dipped in boiling water for approximately 3-5 minutes before being baked in the oven. Their quick preparation time is one reason they have become a staple in the Jewish community, because they make a quick and easy meal on a Saturday evening when the Sabbath ends.
The recipe was once strictly protected. An International Beigel Bakers' Union emerged in the early 1900s. Only the sons of existing members could join, and as an added security measure, they conducted most of their meetings in Yiddish. The union’s monopoly on bagels ended in the 1960s, when the automated bagel machine was invented.
The largest bagel ever was made in 2004 by Bruegger’s Bagels. It weighed 868lb. It required 1,100 pounds of dough, 900 gallons of water, and took 10 hours to bake.
There have even been bagels in space. In 2008 a Canadian astronaut called Gregory Chamitoff took 18 sesame bagels with him to the International Space Station as part of his personal allowance. They came from his cousin’s bakery in Montreal, which is another city where bagels are extremely popular.
There is a bagel Emoji which made it into the emoji lexicon in 2018. It first appeared as a plain bagel, but enough people complained that it should have cream cheese on it that Apple redesigned it to include the cheese.
In 2007, something called the Buzzed Bagel was invented, which is a bagel infused with as much caffeine as two cups of Coffee.
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