What IS a bagel, anyway?
Sometimes a bagel isn't a bagel, but sometimes it is...
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According to Statista, Americans are projected to eat around 204 million bagels this year.
I’m doing my best to push that number up but, clearly, I don’t need to try that hard to sell people on the idea that bagels are great. In fact, the more I ingratiate myself into the Seattle bagel scene, the more I realize that we haven’t even come close to meeting the demand that exists.
I’m starting to lose count of how many times I’ve had to wait in line just for the chance to buy a bagel. The number of times a place has sold out on a weekend morning before I’ve had a chance to get mine is, quite honestly, staggering. Some of that seems to be about driving hype and Instagram mentions, but sometimes it’s literally an inability to keep up with our ravenous interest in a well-made bread circle.
I recently took a day trip to Bainbridge Island and, as I am wont to do, I looked into the local bagel scene. While a few places sold bagels, only Coquette Bake Shop seemed to rise to the level of consideration. They only made bagels on specific days and, perhaps in part because of that, they sell out quickly. In fact, when I stopped by at a reasonable time (11:30 a.m.) to see if I could sample their wares, they were already sold out.
They had my attention.
A week later I returned, making sure I was there early enough to ensure victory. However, I was presented with an entirely new dilemma. I’m saving the specifics for my next bagel review, but suffice it to say I was in a truly perplexing situation.
Their bagel did not appear to actually be a bagel.
I mean, they called it a bagel. From a distance, it looked like a bagel. When I ordered it, it seemed to be a bagel. However, the more I looked at it and ate it, I could not correlate what I was feeling and tasting with what I understood to be a bagel.
This was an extreme example but it made me think about all of the other bagels I’ve eaten in Seattle that don’t quite meet the standard definition.
I don’t claim to be an expert (yet) but the generally understood definition of a bagel begins with five basic ingredients. Flour, yeast, malt, salt, and water. After hand-rolling the dough into a circle, it is briefly boiled and then baked to create a bagel with a chewy or doughy interior inside a golden brown and slightly crisp exterior.
If you really want to get specific, the New York-style bagel traditionally contains malt, is cold-fermented, and then boiled in salted water before baking. You might come across a Montreal-style bagel, which differs by being boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven to produce a smaller, thinner, and sweeter bagel (See: Eltana).
Other than that, bagels don’t tend to have official variations. But as we know, there are plenty of alternative techniques at play around Seattle. Some places use sourdough or rye as their bread base. Others tend to change up the cooking techniques to get a crunchier or softer bagel. Some are using different materials and methods that mirror home-cooking techniques rather than traditional ones, most likely from their interest in bagel-making arising during the pandemic.
I’ve even seen discussions about whether or not we need to start assigning labels to bagels made outside of NY or Montreal, much in the same way we do for pizza.
I recently had the chance to spend time with a local bagel maker (tease for a future post) who started his business during the pandemic. I asked him what he thought of the discussions around bagel styles. He didn’t agree with the idea that Seattle has a distinct style of bagel, but did feel like there was something to be said for the sheer number of bagel shops and pop-ups that started in the pandemic and are now thriving parts of the scene (Howdy Bagel, Aaron’s Bagels, Old Salt, etc.).
I also wonder…are New York bagels even what we would consider “NY-style bagels” at this point? The variation between bagel shops in Manhattan alone, let alone the competing places in Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, seems to imply that bagels have moved on from the simple idea that there’s a perfect way to make them.
When I’m eating a bagel and trying to figure out where I’m going to rank it, I often think about Tom Colicchio, a celebrity chef who has long been the lead judge on Top Chef. Tom is a stickler for the rules and will often chide contestants over the smallest things. Given the absurd limitations or extremes that some of the challenges on the show present, that can make for some over-the-top discussions around technique and presentation. However, something I often remembered was that, regardless of the challenge, Tom would often ultimately side with the dish that simply tasted better. If a chef made a dish that tasted better than the other one, regardless of technique or fundamentals, he would very often choose that one.
I tend to agree with that sentiment. I know that Little Market does not use traditional dough in its bagels. I know that Oxbow’s bagels have a sourdough base instead of a classic one. I know some of the other up-and-coming bagel shops vary their techniques. But if I get something that tastes good from them, I don’t think I’m going to haggle too much over whether or not it meets the exacting criteria of a “NY-style bagel.”
That was the conundrum I found myself in with Coquette. Without spoiling too much, it was hard for me to say that their “bagel” could accurately meet the grounds for consideration as a legitimate bagel. And yet…I enjoyed it more than some of the more legitimate bagels I’ve eaten around Seattle. And if I would return there before, say, Blazing Bagels, it’s hard to chastise them too much for doing it “wrong.”
Maybe that’s a cop-out, I don’t know. I’m not saying that anything that resembles a bagel is worthy of the distinction. Lord knows I’ve eaten a lot of terrible bread circles in Seattle that meet the basic definition. I think the point is that there’s some wiggle room. At least, there’s enough so that we don’t all sound like a bunch of sniveling whataboutists every time a bagel place doesn’t meet the exact requirements in our heads for what a bagel is supposed to be.
Sometimes, a bagel made the “correct” way sucks. And sometimes, a bagel made in some unique way tastes amazing. Rather than stick a label on each of them, or deny them because they don’t do it “the right way,” I’m more interested in finding the bagels that make me feel good. And the search never ends for that next fix.
Thanks for actually reading this far. Know someone in the Greater Seattle Area (or beyond) who would appreciate way-too-detailed reviews of local bagels? Please forward the link their way.