Montreal-style bagel
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The Montreal bagel, (sometimes beigel; Yiddish בײגל beygl, or sometimes in French "beguel"), is a distinctive variety of hand-made and wood-fired baked bagel. Like the similarly shaped "New York bagel", it was 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 Engelman who arrived in the City from Russia in 1919; his descendants continue to make bagels today. In many Montreal establishments bagels are produced by hand and baked in wood-fired ovens, often in full view of the customers. Some of these bakeries are open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, serving fresh products to the bagel-hungry community any time of the day or night.
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 (see: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, Calgary, and other Canadian, and even U.S. 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 its equal proximity to the rival New York City bagel.
Some of the traditional Montreal bagel bakeries are not certified kosher[1]. This does not necessarily mean that the bagels themselves are unkosher, but rather that the owners of the bakeries have not paid the fees necessary to have their bakeries inspected and certified by the community authorities. At least one newer bakery has opened and obtained certification, perhaps reflecting a return to Orthodoxy among the Jews remaining in Montreal who have not left for other cities in North America and Israel; or else reflecting a trend to increasing strictness and formalism within the orthodox community.[2] However, the market for bagels is by no means restricted to the Jewish community, and bagels, sometimes pronounced with a soft "g" in French, have become a part of the broader Montreal culture.
In contrast with 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 random light-and-dark surface colour. There are two predominant varieties: black-seed (poppyseed), or white-seed (sesame seed). Some purists object to any variation on this theme, though most bagel bakeries now offer many additional varieties (including Matzah-like flat breads).
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[edit] Bagel making
Montreal-style bagels are manufactured by the traditional boiling-water method as described here. 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
Bagels are a type of Bread. For a discussion of the chemical processes involved in rising bread dough, see here.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Article: No shocker that Montreal bagels won...
- Article: Montreal Bagels -- are they the Best in the World?
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Jewish Community Council of Montreal, Vaad Hair, "How to become MK Certified"
- ^ On the increasing conservatism of orthodox jewish wedding ceremonies in Montreal, see Marlene Bonneau "Getting Married in Montreal with Two Wedding Rings", The Canadian Jewish Studies Reader, Menkiss and Ravvin, eds, 2004
