A bagel (בײגל; bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeasted wheat dough that is first boiled for a short time in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a browned and sometimes crisp exterior.
Bagels are often topped with seeds baked on the outer crust—traditional choices include poppy and sesame seeds—or with salt grains. Different dough types include whole-grain and rye. The basic roll-with-a-hole design, hundreds of years old, allows even cooking and baking of the dough; it also allows groups of bagels to be gathered on a string or dowel for handling, transportation, and retail display.
The earliest known mention of a boiled-then-baked ring-shaped bread can be found in a 13th-century Syrian cookbook, where they are referred to as ka'ak. Bagel-like bread known as obwarzanek was common earlier in Poland as seen in royal family accounts from 1394. Bagels have been widely associated with Ashkenazi Jews since the 17th century; they were first mentioned in 1610 in Jewish community ordinances in Kraków, Poland.
Bagels are now a popular bread product in North America and Poland, especially in cities with a large Jewish population. Bagels are also sold (fresh or frozen, often in many flavors) in supermarkets.
Linguist Leo Rosten wrote in The Joys of Yiddish about the first known mention of the Polish word bajgiel derived from the Yiddish word bagel in the "Community Regulations" of the city of Kraków in 1610, which stated that the food was given as a gift to women in childbirth. There is some evidence that the bagel may have been made in Germany before being made in Poland.
In the 16th and first half of the 17th centuries, the bajgiel became a staple of Polish cuisine. Its name derives from the Yiddish word beygal from the German dialect word beugel, meaning 'ring' or 'bracelet'.
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Jewish cuisine refers to the worldwide cooking traditions of the Jewish people. During its evolution over the course of many centuries, it has been shaped by Jewish dietary laws (kashrut), Jewish festivals and holidays, and traditions centred around Shabbat. Jewish cuisine is influenced by the economics, agriculture, and culinary traditions of the many countries where Jewish communities have settled and varies widely throughout the entire world. The history of Jewish cuisine begins with the cuisine of the ancient Israelites.
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