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Why do bagels have a hole in them? Why are they boiled before baking?
- ALTHOUGH the people living in the small Jewish villages in Russia had grown used to the constant persecutions of the Tsars, there was one time when a particularly cruel Tsar arose. Not only did he demand a tenth of all the bread they baked, but he demanded that the royal portion should come from the middle of each loaf, so ruining it. The wise men of Chelm got together to discuss how to overcome this terrible burden. Eventually, they came upon a brilliant idea. They baked small, round loaves of bread, with a hole in the middle. The hole was exactly one tenth the size of the rest of the loaf. When the Tsar's soldiers came to collect the royal tithe, the wise men of Chelm presented them with the holes, pointing out that this was the middle portion of the loaf, just as the Tsar had instructed. The soldiers couldn't argue with this and went away empty-handed. Incidentally, in Israel, bagels have much larger holes, as a protest against the high taxation in that country,
Brian Rose, Pinner, Middlesex.
- THE explanations of why a bagel is dipped in boiling water and why it has a hole in the middle are interconnected. First, the boiling water has a little sugar added to it, which serves to glaze the dough, and give it a satisfying surface texture when baked. The heat of the water expands the bubbles in the dough, making it light and airy. The effect is limited to areas near the surface, which is the reason for the bagel's toroidal shape. It is to maximise the surface area in relation to volume. A roll or 'bap' treated in this fashion would have a leaden centre.
Fred Cairns, Woburn Green, Bucks.
- FRED CAIRNS is mistaken in his explanation of why bagels are boiled before baking. According to Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking, moistening dough causes surface starch to gelatinise; when baked, the gelatinised starch turns into a brown, glossy crust. Some breads are sprayed with water (or brushed with beaten egg) to produce the same effect. Presumably, bagels are boiled so that more of the starch will gelatinise, thus producing a thicker crust. The tiny amount of sugar or malt added to the water may aid formation of the crust, but it is not solely or even principally responsible for it.
Richard Ehrlich, London NW5.
See AlsoEnjoy Bagels a Healthier Way
- BAGELS (and when my Campaign For Real Yiddish gets going the spelling will revert to the non-American 'beigel') are not, as they are usually described, Jewish doughnuts but rather mis-shaped Jewish croissants. And not so Jewish at that. They were originally cooked in Vienna to celebrate the relief of the Turkish siege of that city in 1529. The symbol of the Muslim Turks was a crescent, and the beigel was cooked in that shape. Indeed, in any well-crafted beigel you can see where the two crescent ends have been joined together.
John Diamond, London EC1.
- JOHN DIAMOND'S explanation is half-baked. Bagels were indeed baked to celebrate the relief of Vienna from the Turks - but in 1683, not 1529. The commander of the liberating troops who saved Christian Europe from the Infidel was Jan Sobieski, the Polish king and military genius. Locals were so grateful that they rushed forward to kiss his stirrup ('Büaut;gel' in German) as he passed on horseback. Jewish bakers prepared a special stirrup-shaped bread to mark the occasion; the name has degenerated from 'Büaut;gel' to 'Bagel'.
Peter Varey, Ullesthorpe, Leics.
- Given that the German for 'stirrup' is Steigbügel, I cannot for the life of me see why all all those Poles rushed forward to kiss something with the unlikely name 'Büaut;gel' as Peter Varey avers. Or is this yet another example of the Guardian computer's inability to handle diacriticals? I would be interested to see how this submission appears, assuming it gets published at all (to which I say wearily, from bitter experience of the N&Q selection process: "some hopes!")
Pete Wigens, Stroud, Gloucestshire, England
- Having grown up in Brooklyn, New York, I can attest to the intelligence, wit and ingenuity of the Jewish people. It seems entirely likely that the first answer is correct. In any case - that's the one that I believe - wholly in keeping with the spirit of Judaism I have known!
Keryn Taylor-Rhys, Brooklyn New York
- Contrary to some beliefs, the bagel was not created in the shape of a stirrup to commemorate the victory of Poland's King Jan III Sobieski over the Ottoman Turks in the Battle of Vienna in 1683. It was actually invented much earlier in Kraków, Poland, as a competitor to the obwarzanek, a lean bread of wheat flour designed for Lent. Leo Rosten wrote in "The Joys of Yiddish" about the first known mention of the word bajgiel in the "Community Regulations" of the city of Kraków in 1610, which stated that the item was given as a gift to women in childbirth. Do some bloody research, other answers. You seriously all believe those dumb stories? So ignorant.
Cole Warner, San Diego, USA
