The Bagelization of America

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2019

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today, it’s a breakfast staple, but, as recently as 1960, The New York Times had to define it for readers—as “an unsweetened doughnut with rigor mortis.” That’s right, this episode is all about the bagel, that shiny, ring-shaped, surprisingly dense bread that makes the perfect platform for cream cheese and lox. Where did it come from? Can you get a decent bagel outside New York City? And what does it have in common with the folding ping-pong table? Come get your hot, fresh bagel science and history here! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What I found fascinating was that there are many other ring shaped breads.
0:07.8	And there's something I think about our human fascination with this shape, which is to
0:14.3	jump straight into the sort of more grandioses infinite, right?
0:18.3	It has no beginning, it has no end, it's like a halo.
0:21.2	I have to admit that I've never thought about this food item like a halo.
0:25.6	I'm seeing it in a whole new light.
0:29.2	I do sometimes wish it was infinite and had no end.
0:35.3	Like when I'm having a particularly delicious one, fresh and hot from the oven with just
0:40.8	a good smear of veggie cream cheese.
0:43.3	Have you guessed what it is?
0:44.4	If Nicki's smear glued didn't tip you off, we are indeed finally telling the story of
0:49.7	the bagel.
0:50.8	This is something a lot of you have asked for and we are more than happy to oblige.
0:54.6	I never had a bagel till I came to the US from England for grad school.
0:59.2	But once I tried it, I fell in love.
1:02.2	I had it for breakfast every day while I was getting my masters.
1:06.2	Although it was an Einstein brothers bagel which I now know not to be the world's greatest
1:11.2	example of the genre.
1:12.7	And many of you listeners already know that I'm Jewish and I grew up outside DC, the kid
1:16.8	of two New York Jews.
1:18.5	So you can imagine that bagels have always been a critical part of my life.
1:23.1	Always.
	...

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