7mo ago

das bagel

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For those that haven't tried them, and don't fancy going to NYC or Montreal for the "authentic bagel experience", try making your own and you'll see the huge difference between what you get in supermarkets (even good ones with good bakeries like Lidl) and a proper bagel. While there's a few steps, it's not hard to make.
But for the yanks, you should absolutely try German bakeries. I can understand why even good bagels aren't a priority for them...
- As an Australian living in Germany for over a decade I'm still not that impressed with German bakeries. The pretzels are awesome and the bread is fine but the sandwiches are lame. They're like mostly bread and never more than 1 or 2 toppings. A German once told me it's because the point of the sandwich is the bread and if there are too many toppings you won't taste the bread 😅
  Germans love their bread so much but I think it's just because that's what they grew up with, I don't think it's objectively as good as they think it is
- I recently, as a lifelong montrealer, spent a few days in Manhattan and tried the bagels. Montreal bagels have this kind of faint aroma you get from the honey in the dough that I just didn't find in New York bagels, the flavor of the new York bagels was much closer to bread but the texture was great. Also, maybe a New Yorker could answer this, but were they always so big with almost no hole or is that a development from them being used for sandwiches?
  
  I never had a bagel on my trips to Britain but, at least when my dad was growing up in the 30s and 40s (and an adult there in the 50s), he said British bagels tasted somewhat different from American ones and had a very different texture.
  
  I read they use a malt syrup in NY instead of honey when they boil them, I've always wanted to try making them that way.
  
  Ah! That goes to show how our local experience shapes our definition of things. Is the malt syrup or honey more traditional (I'm guessing honey but you never know)?
  
  The recipes I've followed ask for some malt extract in the boiling water. There's a definite difference in taste and texture, and while I recommend it, most places that sell the extract sell huge jars of it, so you'll want to make a lot of bagels to get it used up...
- you'll see the huge difference between what you get in supermarkets (even good ones with good bakeries like Lidl) and a proper bagel.
  I believe in large part this is because traditionally a bagel ought to be boiled in water and then baked in an oven. But to save labor costs, mass-produced bagels are often baked in a steam oven which doesn't quite give the same chewy texture.
  Another factor is, they will generally partly bake them in the factory, then freeze them and ship them off to your supermarket which finishes them off before putting it on the shelf.

105 comments