Why do bagels have holes, why can't they simply not have them?

Question

I hate it when the spread or stuff falls out the hole when you're preparing it and especially when you're eating the darned things!!

For once, even the hecklers have good responses,... LOL

** Uhmm,... Gabe, I know that, but that wasn't the question,.... U dummy!!!

Answer 1

I don't see how it would be impossible to make a bagel without holes. I mean, I have seen square bagels. Those bagels were gross, but they were an off-brand. So, why not try to make hole-less bagels and let us know how it turns out?
No, donuts don't have to have holes, either.

Answer 2

The bagel originated in Central Europe, probably in Poland. A 1610 document from Krakow mentions “beygls” given as a gift to women in childbirth. This is often cited as the earliest known reference to the bagel, but the document is not clear what a “beygl” is. It may be what is now known as a bagel, it may be something related to the word for stirrup (beugal), or it may refer to something else whose meaning is lost.

An oft-repeated story states that the bagel originated in 1683 in Vienna, Austria, when a local Jewish baker created them as a gift for King Jan III Sobieski of Poland to commemorate the King's victory over the Turks that year. The baked good was fashioned in the form of a stirrup (or horseshoe, tales vary) to commemorate the victorious cavalry charge. That the name bagel originated from beugal (stirrup) is considered plausible by many, both from the similarities of the word and due to the fact that traditional handmade bagels are not perfectly circular but rather slightly stirrup-shaped. (This fact, however, may be due to the way the boiled bagels are pressed together on the baking sheet before baking.) More prosaically, the name bagel may simply originate from the Yiddish and German word bügel, meaning “bale” or bow, sometimes used to refer to a round loaf of bread (see Gugelhupf for a Austrian cake with a similar ring shape).

Ashkenazi immigrants in the 1880s brought the bagel to the Lower East Side New York City, where it continues to flourish as a local cuisine popular not only with one ethnic group but as an icon of the city. The same phenomenon has happened to the Montreal bagel. Until the 1920s, bagels were rare in other parts of the United States other than a few cities with large Eastern European Jewish populations. The bagel came into more general use throughout North America in the last quarter of the 20th century. Today, bagels are enjoyed all over the world, and have become one of the most popular breakfast foods.

Answer 3

Switch to bialies! The bialy has a dent where the bagel has a hole and they are made out of very similar dough.

I actually prefer bialies over bagels; they are not as heavy.

From Wikipedia:

Bialy is a small roll named for the city of Bialystok, Poland. A traditional bialy has a diameter of up to 15 cm (6 inches) and is a chewy yeast roll similar to a bagel. Unlike a bagel, a bialy is not boiled, rather it is simply baked (bagels are boiled before baking), and instead of a hole in the middle it has a depression. Before baking, this depression is filled with diced onions and other ingredients including (depending on the recipe) garlic, poppy seeds, or bread crumbs.

The name bialy is short for bialystoker kuchen (Bialystok's Cake). The bialy is little known outside of New York City, where it was originally brought into the United States by Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

The bialy was first marketed in the United States during the early 1900's in the state of New York by Harry Cohen, a proprietor of a Bagel (and later bialy) establishment.

Answer 4

When you make a bagel (a real new york bagel), it starts as a "log" and then it is cut into shorter logs and hand rolled into a ring. When cheaper "presses" and machines became available, they didn't really need the hole anymore but they kept it for good looks. If you have a hand-rolled new york bagel, however, you'll definetly know why they go for hand rolling and putting a hole in it.

Doughnuts, however, I'm not sure about. I suppose the hole helps them cook more evenly in the oil.

Answer 5

There is a good reason for bagels to have holes. The bagel is about the size of your palm and contains a lot of dense dough. Because of the way it is cooked (it is boiled and then baked), if there were no hole in the middle, the dough would be too thick and the center would not cook through. Would you want your bagel to have goo in the middle instead?

Answer 6

The holes are where the bagels attach to the bagel tree. When someone picks the bagel off the tree, the middle part sticks to the tree branch.

Answer 7

The closest thing to a bagel without a hole is an English muffin.

Answer 8

It was discovered by a nine year old boy whos mother baked bagels and doughnuts that the bread was always softer and doughier in the middle. So he came up with the idea to remove the middle, and that's how the munchkins (they're the middle part that was removed), and ring doughnuts and bagels came to be.

Answer 9

Because as they are boiled frist, prior to baking, they won't get done...they will be doughy...as well tough. But they just cook more evenly with a hole

Answer 10

For the same reason donuts can't not have holes -- otherwise their centers would be soggy to eat.