Boil me a Bagel!

Bread, as we all know, is baked. Boiling bread would just be weird! Except, maybe dumplings, which are bread-like and boiled. Although they're more like a pudding, right?

Anyway, bagels are boiled before they're baked. This probably answers all the boiled bread-related questions that came up in the pub. I don't really have anything more to say on this, so here's some stuff grabbed off the internet:

The BBC Brunch Bagel recipe if you feel like making your own. I have not tried it.

Here's a video of a bloke boiling, then draining bagels.

A longer video that shows all stages and is essentially an advert for the Seattle Bagel Bakery is here.

I have to say I am unconvinced by bagels. Not the texture or flavour, but the shape. If you try to fill it with something you either have to make an annular filling or it drops out the hole. I don't know, am I missing something?

Stan brought up pretzels (the big bready ones) and it seems in Germany these are dipped in lye (sodium hydroxide) solution, sometimes boiling, before baking. This sounds much more dangerous (and this bloke, who has a good grasp of the scientific method agrees) so I will stick to bagels for the moment.

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