Since tjoeb brought up pretzels & croissants, he got me wondering about bagels too.

Curious about the beginnings of the bagel?

According to the Webster dictionary a bagel is "a hard bread roll made of yeast dough twisted into a small doughnutlike shape, cooked in simmering water, then baked."

The bagel is the only bread product that is boiled before it is baked.
***************************

The first bagel rolled into the world in 1683 when a Viennese baker wanted to pay tribute to Jan Sobieski, the King of Poland. King Jan had just saved the people of Austria from an onslaught of Turkish invaders.

The King was a great horseman, and the baker decided to shape the yeast dough into an uneven circle resembling a stirrup. The Austrian word for "Stirrup" is beugel.

As the Buegels popularity spread throughout Eastern Europe, the name evolved but the formula and tradition remained unchanged for three centuries.

In 1880, thousands of Eastern European Jews immigrated to the USA. They brought with them a desire for bagels and bagels soon become closely associated with New York and Chicago, both cities with large Jewish populations.

In 1907 the International Bakers Union was founded in New York City.

In 1920, Joseph & Isaac Breakstone marketed a new item called "Cream Cheese". It became a big hit with the New York Jewish Community and became a standard spread for bagels.

Bagel Trivia:

THE WORLD'S BIGGEST BAGEL? An enormous 714 POUNDS!!! Larry Wilkerson, and Jeff Maninfior made the world's biggest bagel, at 714 pounds. The super bagel was baked to earn a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.

[ 04-16-2002, 07:19 PM: Message edited by: Pinhead ]

Bagels are great! There's nothing better in the morning than a hot, toasted sesame bagel, plain and unadorned, with a good spread of butter. Love it....

Hi, jubjub! Tasty topic, Pinhead!

I once tried to make my OWN bagels. I cheated cause the recipe was in my breadmaker recipe book. However, I tried. Made the dough just the way it said, tried to shape them just the way it said, boiled them, just the way it said...and baked them as recommended.

What came out of the oven was edible, sort of, but they were small and deformed and rather dense (sort of like me! hahahahahahaaa).

I made a brave attempt a few times to eat them. My family just kinda looked and snorted and rolled their eyes....and they sat around for about a week and went in the garbage!

Just thought I'd share!

lefois - LOL