Montreal-style bagel

TheMontreal-style bagelorMontreal bagel(sometimesbeigel;Yiddish:בײגל,romanized:beygl;French:Bagel de Montréal) is a distinctive variety of handmade and wood-fired bakedbagel. In contrast to theNew York–style bagel,the Montreal bagel is smaller, thinner, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in awood-fired oven.It containsmalt,egg, and no salt, and is boiled inhoney-sweetened water before being baked.
In someMontrealestablishments, bagels are still produced by hand and baked in full view of the patrons.There are two predominant varieties: black-seed (poppy seed), or white-seed (sesame seed).
Montreal bagels, like the similarly shaped New York bagel, were brought to North America by Jewish immigrants from Poland and other Eastern European countries; the differences in texture and taste reflect the style of the particular area in Poland in which the immigrant bakers learned their trade. Minor controversy surrounds the question of who first brought the bagel to Montreal. They were (reportedly) first baked in Montreal by Chaim (Hyman) Seligman,as verified by Montreal historian Joe King,a historian of Montreal Jewry. Seligman first worked in the neighbourhood community ofLachineand later moved his bakery to the lane next door toSchwartz'sDelicatessen on Boulevard St. Laurent in central Montreal. Seligman would string his bagels into dozens and patrol Jewish Main purveying his wares, originally with a pushcart, then a horse and wagon and still later from a converted taxi. Seligman went into partnership with Myer Lewkowicz and with Jack Shlafman but fell out with both of them. Seligman and Lewkowicz founded theSt. Viateur Bagel Shopin 1957 and Shlafman establishedFairmount Bagelin 1919,which both still exist in the present day.
A substantial proportion of Montreal's English-speaking Jewish community gradually left for other locales. Catering to this population, Montreal-style bagel shops have opened inDartmouth, Nova Scotia,Vancouver,Ottawa,Toronto,Hamilton,Calgary,Winnipeg,Whitehorse, and other Canadian, cities. They have even spread to the UK and some US cities, such asBurlington,Houston,Los Angeles,Oakland,Portland, andSeattle. For a time this style of bagel was almost completely unknown in the northeastern U.S., mainly due to the proximity of the rival New York City bagel.(with one exception having been inBurlington, Vermont, where Myer's Bagels boasts a Montreal-style wood-fired oven and Lloyd Squires, a formerSt-Viateur Bagel Shopbaker).At one point in New York City there were two Montreal-style bagel locations in the borough of Brooklyn within four blocks of each other, but one is now closed and the other no longer offers Montreal-style bagels.
Montreal-style bagels are currently the only style of bagel known to have ventured into space.Gregory Chamitoff, who grew up in Montreal, took three bags of sesame bagels with him on his assignments toSTS-124as passenger and ISSExpedition 17as crewmember.
Montreal-style bagels are, for the most part, manufactured by the samemethod used to produce a generic bagel.
The Montreal-style method of making bagels builds on the basic traditional method in the following ways:
Several Montreal bagel factories produce authentic Montreal-style bagels.St-Viateur Bagel, at 263 av. St-Viateur Ouest, andFairmount Bagel, at 74 Avenue Fairmount West are two notable bagel shops in Montreal.Both claim to be the oldest bagel shop in the city.