I mean, why doesn’t anyone invent one WITHOUT a hole in the middle?

Or ham WITH a hole in the middle…

ham bagel?

Why not?

Onion bagels from Katella Deli in Los Alamitos, CA 😛 heaven with a hole 😀

They did it’s called a bap 😆

They did it’s called a bap

Totally different dough. Oh to be able to contain ones cream cheese and olives…

The hole is the best bit. Cannot understand why anyone would choose a bagel over a nice crusty bread roll.

Bagels toasted for breakfast with Marmite, crusty rolls for lunch. 🙂

Bagels with cream cheese, bacon and a dash of spicey carrot chutney for me these evening – slightly UN-kosher, but lovely.

not, of course that I am not partial to a pair of floury baps now and again.

Bagels are Jewish therefore they’re not designed for pork related products hence the hole. 😕

Hope that clears that up.

kayak23 – Member
They did it’s called a bap
Totally different dough. Oh to be able to contain ones cream cheese and olives..
Oh yeah silly me.. I forgot you need a reservoir of tea to get one of those edible loofah’s down 😯

Didn’t realise they were a Jewish thing till a month or so ago when It was in a crossword 😳

Oh to be able to contain ones cream cheese and olives…

Fair enough with the olives, what with them being rounded and thereby able to roll, but if you’re struggling to get cream cheese to stay on a bagel then perhaps someone should be feeding you? 🙂

wrightyson – Member

Didn’t realise they were a Jewish thing till a month or so ago when It was in a crossword
If Hitler had got his way, we might not be eating them today.

Who? Is that the bloke who doesn’t like rigid single speeds?

the Jewish version was a lot smaller too. The modern bagel is Americanised in size.

The hole in the middle is odd, maybe it was so they could be stacked on a pole to prevent them being pinched.

Anydyl gets 20 points

“The basic roll-with-a-hole design is hundreds of years old and has other practical advantages besides providing for a more even cooking and baking of the dough: the hole could be used to thread string or dowels through groups of bagels, allowing for easier handling and transportation and more appealing seller displays.”

Also makes it easier to deal with them in the boiling water too. hook em out father than trying to get them with a spoon.

On a trip to Noo Yoik a few years back we did a food tour and visited a proper Jewish bakery where they made all sorts of fresh bagels. It was delicious. I should have asked why the hole at the time.

I’m all for the hole to keep things authentic, just sayin’ that it would be easier to contain a good filling when eating them sandwich-style if there wasn’t a hole there. You get less squidge-out then. Normally you only have to worry about external-squidge, but with the bagel, internal-squidge is also a possibility.

Mmm….bagel… 🙂

Emmental ftw

And BEIGELS should not have silly flavours added. Still makes me titter thinking about the fixie riding, nu-East End tit who asked for a cinnamon one at the Brick Lane Beigel Bake. The look of disgust on the girl serving was priceless. Goes without saying he didn’t leave with a salt beef variant as an alternative.

Bagels are Jewish therefore they’re not designed for pork related products hence the hole.

In that case the holes on mine were broken – that bacon laid out on the bagel like it belonged there.

but with the bagel, internal-squidge is also a possibility.

Internal squidge is, however IMHO, a price worth paying in a little extra laundry and cheesy fingers.

And BEIGELS should not have silly flavours added.

Much like houmous and halloumi cheese…

Much like houmous and halloumi cheese…

Indeed. Saw Spanish Style Houmous in Tesco at the weekend FFS

Traditional Finnish flat rye bread has a hole in the middle. It’s because they used to make a load of it at harvest time and thread loads of the disc shaped things onto a pole that they hung above the fireplace, where the bread dried out and lasted all winter.