While I was preparing to give my morning bagel a schmear this morning, the thought popped into my head. Why is that hole there? If you were going to build a food that was perfect for a schmear of cream cheese, why would you put a hole right smack in the middle?
Years ago, this might have been something that kept me up at night. Thankfully, these days we have the Google machine which can answer all questions. And sometimes, it will actually give you answers that seem pretty well right. Although, honestly, I was almost expecting some sort of conspiracy theory. But the answer seemed pretty reasonable.
The dough of a bagel is pretty dense, so in order to make sure the center of the bagel would be properly cooked, they left a hole. This would allow for greater surface area all around the bagel, particularly in the center, and allow for more even cooking. That is the actual reason.
There are side benefits. The hole would also allow for bagels to be stacked on a stick or strung on a string so they could be easily transported. And stacking them on a stick made for a nice display to sell them. Although then you would always have that one person who would want the bagel on the bottom of the stack, I suppose. That’s just human nature.
And I also came across a recipe that made good use of the hole. It seems people have been using the bagel for a variation of a toad in the hole. At least the American version, which is frying an egg in a hole cut in a piece of bread. The British version involves sausages and gravy and is an entirely different animal. Or at least a different toad. But the fried egg version can fit quite well with a bagel.
But since all I want is a bagel with a nice schmear, I tend to look around for bagels that are… well… not perfect. Bagels where the baker did not exactly take their time and the hole is not so much a hole as an indentation. Sort of the thought of a hole, but the hole is not really there. This allows for a less careful schmear and a place for the cream cheese to sit and not have a hole to melt into.
But the egg idea does sound interesting. And gives the hole an even better reason to exist.
