Cathy Barrow - Bagels, Schmears, and a Nice Piece of Fish - A Whole Brunch of Recipes to Make at Home

TO MY MISHPOCHA

Text copyright 2022 by Cathy Barrow.
Photographs copyright 2022 by Linda Xiao.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 9781797210568 (epub, mobi)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Barrow, Cathy, author. | Xiao, Linda, photographer.
Title: Bagels, schmears, and a nice piece of fish / Cathy Barrow ; photographs by Linda Xiao.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021035053 | ISBN 9781797210551
Subjects: LCSH: Bagels. | Cooking (Bagels) | Sandwiches.
Classification: LCC TX770.B35 B344 2022 |
DDC 641.81/5--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021035053

Food Styling by Barrett Washburne.
Prop Styling by Maeve Sheridan.
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Quote, : Miss Manners 2020 Judith
Martin. Reprinted with permission of Andrews
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BAGELS

A NICE PIECE OF FISH
& Other Favorites from the Appetizing Store

HAVE A LITTLE NOSH, BUBBALA

I grew up Jewishgastronomically, culturally, and only marginally observant. My Boston-born mother, Jan, was not built for Toledo, Ohio, bemoaning a world without a seashore, an international airport, nor a single freshly baked bagel.

To remedy the situation, my grandmother Bea would fly to us regularly with provisions. As she exited the plane looking elegant in a trim suit, heels, and a chic hat, as if off the pages of a magazine, our eyes would be trained on the round, striped hatbox tied together with wide, white ribbon, stuffed to the brim with bagels from my mothers favorite Brookline bakery.

On the way home in the car, my mother, oblivious to the rest of us, would pry open the box, and the mountain of bagels would fill the car with a wonderful yeasty aroma. I gazed at the tiny poppy seeds, sesame seeds, flakes of onion, beads of garlic. Pumpernickel bagels, dark and sweet, contrasted with the sunny yellow egg bagels. Always, there were bialys, but only a couple. My mother worked to ferret out and take the first bite of the lone salt bagel. My mother loved bagels.

For my entire life, those have been the bagels by which I evaluate any others. Until very recently, finding a good bagel in much of the country was nearly impossible. The sad, spongy, pale, presliced offerings, usually frozen and steamed back to life, were downright unacceptable. A determined DIY-er, I struggled to make a bagel at home, one that could live up to my bagel standards. Time after time, recipe after recipe, they were doughy, they lacked the proper structure, and the flavor was dull. They were just rolls with holes. I began to wonder if maybe bagels were just one of those things that couldnt be made successfully in the home kitchen. But I persisted, fueled by the belief that theres nothing like freshly baked homemade breadsurely the same was true for bagels.

In 2016, the Washington Post printed a recipe for bagels that changed all that. I discovered the power of high-gluten flour, and from that recipe, I went on to find more than a dozen additional bagel recipes that led me to months of experimenting in the kitchen. Eventually, I had a bagel with the chew, the density, the tang, the consistency, and the yield that I wanted.

Once I conquered a solid basic bagel recipe, it was time to work bagel making into real life. After a few bakes, I gained competency, as one does with any skill, and my bagels consistently came out smooth and round with defined center holes. Soon, my experiments in the kitchen branched out into the deli offerings that accompany a great bagel. Naturally, the New Yorkstyle bagels began a kitchen journey that continued to seed-covered Montreal bagels, bialys, and oniony pletzels. I craved creamy schmears, sweet cured fish, and briny pickles, and before long, set out to produce the entire deli experience of my youth, right in my own kitchen. As I created different bagel flavor combinations, breakfast sandwiches and midnight bagel snacks became part of my bagel zeitgeist.