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The Montreal bagel is world famous, with people coming far and wide to Montreal's two most revered bagel joints, Fairmount Bagels and St. Viateur Bagels. Dozens of other bagel shops have opened up during the 20th century, spreading over the city, following the expansion North and West of the East European immigrants who originally brought the bagel over the Atlantic.
The Montreal bagel contains malt, egg, and no salt, and it is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven. There are two predominant varieties: the noir ("black"--poppyseed) or the blanc ("white"--sesame seed). Montreal bagel purists consider any variation on this theme sacrilege. Montreal bagels must be baked in a wood-fired oven to be considered genuine. This is why so many bagel joints have no wall between the main shop area and the kitchen, thus letting all the customers see the oven and its wood fire.
Bagel making
The bagels are made with a flour rich in glutenin and gliadin, two long, coiled, tangled protein molecules which unfold and line up in long strands when they are kneaded. The glutenin and the gliadin also make links with each other, building gluten, a web of proteins which gives the dough the elasticity it needs to rise as yeast. It also gives off carbon dioxide at a crucial stage later on.
A small amount of sugar is added to the dough to feed the yeast. A little bit of egg is put in for colour and flavour. Correct kneading creates air pockets into which the abovementioned carbon dioxide expands. The pockets are largely responsible for the final texture of the bagel.
Oxygen, present in the air, is also introduced during kneading. It strengthens the gluten by ensuring a chemical reaction that forms sulfur, which makes links between adjacent protein molecules.
The rings of dough are immersed in a boiling water-and-honey solution prior to baking. Starch molecules in the flour are coiled together in tiny granules. The hot water penetrates the granules and causes them to swell, which strengthens the molecular web created by the gluten proteins.
In the oven, the sugars in the honey combine with the proteins in the dough to build up the shiny brown crust of the bagel. The smoke of the wood adds to the flavour. During baking, the gluten coagulates and the starch finishes gelatinizing.
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