Montreal-style bagel
The Montreal bagel, (sometimes beigel; Yiddish [בײגל] Error: {{Lang}}: script: hebr not supported for code: yi (help) beygl, or sometimes in French "beguel"), is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel.
History
Montreal bagels, like the similarly shaped New York bagel, were brought to North America by Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe; the difference in texture and taste reflect the style of the particular area in Eastern Europe in which the immigrant bakers learned their trade. The bagel was introduced to Montreal by a baker named Isadore Shlafman in 1919. His descendants continue to make bagels today in the same neighborhood at the Fairmount Bagel Bakery. In many Montreal establishments bagels are produced by hand and baked in wood-fired ovens, often in full view of the customers.
In the wake of the political uncertainty associated with the rise of the Quebec sovereignty movement, coupled with the implementation of new laws promoting the use of French at the expense of English, for example Bill 22 and Bill 101, a substantial proportion of the Montreal English-speaking Jewish community gradually left Montreal for other locales. Catering to this population, Montreal-style bagel shops have opened in Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton[1], Calgary, and other Canadian, and even US cities, such as Houston, Texas. However, this style of bagel is almost completely unknown in the northeastern U.S. despite its proximity to Montreal, mainly due to the proximity of the rival New York City bagel. [citation needed]
In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven, whose irregular flames give it a dappled light-and-dark surface colour. There are two predominant varieties: black-seed (poppyseed), or white-seed (sesame seed).
STS-124 passenger, and ISS Expedition 17 crewmember, Montrealer Canadian astronaut Gregory Chamitoff, brought the first bagels into space, 3 bags (18 sesame seed bagels) of Fairmount Bagels with him. [2] [3]
Production
Montreal-style bagels are, for the most part, manufactured by the same method used to produce a generic bagel. The Montreal-style method of making bagels builds on the basic traditional method in the following ways:
- The bagel dough includes egg, and contains no added salt.
- Honey is added to the water used for poaching the bagels before baking.
- The bagels are baked in wood-fired oven.
See also
References
- ^ Bagel lovers, the Abominable Doughnut Must Not Stand.
- ^ CTV.ca Montreal-born astronaut brings bagels into space Sun. Jun. 1 2008 7:29 PM ET ; CTV National News - 1 June 2008 - 11pm TV newscast
- ^ The Gazette (Montreal), Here's proof: Montreal bagels are out of this world, IRWIN BLOCK, Tuesday June 3 2008, Section A, Page A2
External links
- "No shocker that Montreal bagels won...." Montreal Gazette.
- "Montreal Bagels -- are they the Best in the World?" Bootsnall Travel.