January 15, 2020 – NATIONAL BAGEL DAY
Posted: Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:04 am
NATIONAL BAGEL DAY
Toast up your favorite flavor on National Bagel Day. On January 15th, don’t forget to pick your favorite schmear, too. Make it for breakfast, lunch, or snack, or all of the above!
This kosher carbohydrate brings complex flavors to the deli and sandwich bar. In the United States, we love our crunch-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside bread. They’re a staple in our freezers and as a winter pick-me-up.
Bagel History
Polish-Jewish immigrants introduced the bagel to the United States. Throughout New York City and the surrounding boroughs, they grew thriving businesses. Of course, it didn’t take long for the bakers to organize. In 1907, they created the International Beigel Bakers’ Union. For decades, Bagel Bakers Local 338 held contracts with nearly all bagel bakeries in and around the city for its workers.
Until the 1960s, bakeries made bagels by hand. Then Daniel Thompson invented the bagel maker, and along came a heated debate of man versus the machine. Thereafter, the question of the better bagel dangled before customers. Was it the handcrafted beigel or the manufactured bagel?
The bagel became more common throughout North America during the last quarter of the 20th century. Credit for the bagels’ spread across the country goes in part to the efforts of bagel baker Harry Lender, his son, Murray Lender, and Florence Sender. Their pioneering efforts led to automated production and distribution of frozen bagels in the 1960s. Murray also invented pre-slicing the bagel.
