Siri who invented the doughnut

Getting the world to agree on what a makes proper bagel might make the Middle East peace process look easy, and I've long since stopped trying to convince anyone. Although I'm sure there's not really any perfect bagel out there, I think that what we're doing holds its own against the best New York has to offer. As with most all of what we do that's particularly special, the bagels are very true to tradition.

We make them according to hundred-plus-year-old techniques; they're very chewy, hold a crust even if the humidity doesn't cooperate, have a bit of a crunch, and I think are pretty darned delicious. I should mention Montreal too, because it's worth going there to eat the bagels. We went before we started and have been back several times to re-check and re-taste. Interestingly, the Montreal bagel uses eggs and sugar -- the bagels are much sweeter -- and no salt. An acquired taste for anyone who's not from there, they're worth a trip to Quebec's capital city to eat one warm from the oven at either of the two spots that still bake them -- Fairmount or St.

The bagel's known history goes back at least a good six centuries, and, in practice, probably more than that. While we know them in the here-and-now of 21st-century America, the bagel's likely rollout to the world probably began in Poland. Balinska first suggests the possibility that they came East to Poland from Germany as part of a migration flow during the 14th century. At the time, pretzels the thick bread of the German variety, not the American kind that comes in plastic bags were making their way out of their original home in the monasteries and being made into readily available feast day bread.

German immigrants, brought to Poland to help provide people power for building the economy immigration was then encouraged, not discouraged , brought the pretzels with them. In Poland, that theory goes, the German breads morphed into a round roll with a hole in the middle that came to be known in Poland as an obwarzanek.

Written records of them appear as early as the 14th century. They gained ground when then Queen Jadwiga, known for her charity and piety, opted to eat obwarzanek during Lent in lieu of the more richly flavored breads and pastries she enjoyed the rest of the year. While that might seem like quite a step in the context of Marie Antoinette's later "let them eat cake" comments, take note that, although Jadwiga was apparently pretty down-to-earth as queens go, obwarzanek at that time wasn't exactly the kind of inexpensive street food that bagels became a few centuries later.

Lent, then as now, was, of course, a period during which devout Christians consciously chose deprivation -- but what constitutes "deprivation" is relative.

What the queen chose for her daily bread was, at the time, actually rather costly, as it was made from wheat, which was not cheap. Most Poles at that time could barely afford the cheaper, coarser breads from rye flour, so white wheat was pretty much off the table for all but the wealthy.

Obwarzanek was primarily the province of princes, nobles, and men and women of means, but generally not for the poor. Still one other version dates the first bagels to the late 17th century in Austria, saying that bagels were invented in by a Viennese baker trying to pay tribute to the King of Poland, Jan Sobieski.

The king had led Austria and hence Poland as well, since it was part of the empire in repelling invading Turkish armies. Given that the king was famous for his love of horses, the baker decided to shape his dough into a circle that looked like a stirrup -- or beugel in German. Going back a bit, at the same time Germans were making their way to Poland, so too were a good number of Jews, which is where my ancestors would have gotten involved. In that era it was quite common in Poland for Jews to be prohibited from baking bread.

This stemmed from the commonly held belief that Jews, viewed as enemies of the Church, should be denied any bread at all because of the holy Christian connection between bread, Jesus, and the sacrament. Skip to content. Like this: Like Loading March 1, at pm. Chronica Domus. September 11, at pm. Gary Gillman. September 4, at pm. MM Pack. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:. Email Address never made public. I'm not Siri!

I love to hear from readers and I take time to answer queries. It's depressing. So, if you are someone who doesn't bother to say thanks, please ask Siri instead. Otherwise, e-mail me! Louis tea rooms temperance theme restaurants women women patrons women proprietors women restaurateurs.

Search for:. Blog at WordPress. Follow Following. Restaurant-ing through history Join 3, other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Add the buttermilk and mix until combined. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined - make sure not to overmix. Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a round tip and pipe into a greased doughnut pan. Bake at F for 7 minutes. Cool for 1 minute in the pan, then flip the pan over to remove the doughnuts and cool completely on a wire rack.

Make the glaze: Whisk together 1 tablespoon half and half cream and the vanilla extract.