What came first? Bagel or the muffin?

I have always thought of bagels and English muffins as breakfast food. But we in Charlottesville know better and have, for years, enjoyed bagel sandwiches at the various Bodo’s locations. I have eaten many bagels, but none have been better than those at Bodo’s.

I wonder which came first, the bagel or the muffin. Taking into account that both were products of the home kitchen at one time, I think they originated sometime in the 1600s and 1700s.

Food historians agree that the bagel originated in the Jewish communities of Eastern Europe and came to the United States from there. Some believe that the first bagel came about when a Viennese baker wanted to honor Polish King Jan III Sobieski for saving the Austrians from Turkish invaders. Since the king had a passion for horseback riding, the baker made the rolls with a hole and strung them together to represent a stirrup, known in German as “beugel.”

First of its kind

Others say that the first bagel originated in Krakow, Poland, around 1610. At that time bagels were a gift to any women in childbirth, as they seemed to represent life. Whatever the origin the bagel became a staple among Eastern Europeans.

Bagels came to New York in the 1880s with the multitude of Eastern European Jews. They were sold on the street corners displayed on wooden dowels.

In 1907, the International Bagel Bakers Union was founded in New York City. Membership was open to bakers of bagels and their sons. They guarded the recipe for this roll with a hole, which was traditionally boiled in water before baking. Bagel bakers usually worked in teams of four. Two men made the dough and shaped the bagels, a third boiled them and the fourth baked them.

Boiled bread

Bagels are the only bread product that is boiled before it is baked. This provides chewiness instead of brittle crumbs. The yeast dough is shaped into rings and allowed to rise, and then the rings are briefly tossed in rapidly boiling water for a few seconds. Then the rings are baked.

Shortly after World War I, Meyer Thompson, the son of a bagel baker in Winnipeg, Canada, started experimenting with making a bagel machine in his family’s bakery. He invented several models but each was flawed — one was too slow, another impeded the rising process. Although the third worked well, it was too expensive to build.

In the early 1960s, Thompson’s son perfected his father’s invention with the Thompson Bagel Machine. It produced 200 to 400 bagels an hour.

The first of these machines was installed in a bakery in New Haven, Conn. There a Polish immigrant, Harry Lender, converted his traditional

bakery into a bagel bakery. Eventually his two sons took over the business and specialized in flash-frozen bagels. Within a few years Lender’s bagels were in supermarket freezers throughout the country. By 1984, Lender’s bakery had grown to 600 employees and was bought out by Kraft.

Various members and their sons of the Bagel Baker’s Union established business throughout the country. One of the most famous bakers was John Max of Cincinnati, who gained fame as a television personality and sports promoter with his bagels.

The ease of eating has contributed to the popularity of the bagel. It has better portability than toast and is a more satisfying chew than ordinary sandwich bread.

English muffins, as we know them today, became popular in England in the Victorian era, although they had been created long before then. They originally were made and consumed by the servants in large manor houses. The family baker made these muffins from leftover bread, biscuit dough scraps and mashed potatoes. He fried the batter on a hot griddle, thus creating a light, crusty muffin.

Once family members tasted these muffins, they became the bread of England. English muffin factories sprang up all over the country. Muffin men could be heard in the streets selling their muffins from wooden trays slung around their necks. There was even a children’s nursery rhyme about the muffin man.

In 1874, a young man named Samuel Bath Thomas left England for America with a recipe for a muffin baked on a hot griddle. After arriving in New York City, Thomas worked in a bakery. By 1880 he had saved enough money to open his own bakery shop on Ninth Avenue in Manhattan.

Thomas’ bakery shop was different than the others in New York. In addition to the common white and wheat breads, Thomas also offered English muffins to his customers. His muffins were round, single portions, made from yeast dough and baked on a griddle. They were to be split, not sliced, and toasted before serving. The flavor and texture of Thomas’s English muffins were different from other muffins on the market. He had a large and loyal following. Soon other stores were buying Thomas’ English muffins and selling them to their customers. Quickly Thomas had to expand his delivery area beyond Manhattan.

Thomas died in 1919 and his daughters and nephew inherited the business, which they incorporated in 1922. The business continued to prosper and was sold in 1970 to George Wesson Bakeries. Wesson, too, had started as a single baker in Toronto and expanded his business to include cakes and an assortment of biscuits.

The name Thomas is still synonymous with English muffins. Today there are a variety of Thomas’ muffins, including oat bran, cinnamon, honey wheat and multi-grained. There also are sandwich-sized and a super-sized English muffin. The nooks and crannies are still prevalent in each of Thomas’ English muffins.

We continue to enjoy a bagel or an English muffin for breakfast each morning and occasionally a bagel sandwich for lunch.