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Off the Eaten Path

We Found Out What Actually Makes New York Bagels So Superior

And it's not the tap water...

January 31, 2025
Photo by Ty Mecham

Welcome to Off the Eaten Path, a series where our Test Kitchen creator Noah Tanen dives deep into regional recipes. Next up? New York bagels.


I’m just going to say it: New York City has the best bagels in America, and probably in the world. The absolute greatest, fresh out of the wood-fired oven at St. Viateur in Montreal come close, but what New York has over its Canadian counterpart is a far wider availability of good bagels almost anywhere. I would go as far as to say that the vast majority in New York are, if not great, pretty good.

Anyone who has lived anywhere else will tell you that this is not typical. The folk knowledge used to explain the concentration of high quality bagels has become gospel: it’s all about the water, that there’s something about the pH or the mineral content in NYC tap water that causes the city’s dough to be intangibly superior.

I’ve always been skeptical of this notion, but a little research shows it’s simply not true. America’s Test Kitchen conducted a taste test, pitting bagels made with both Boston and New York City municipal water against each other. The results amongst tasters showed the two batches to be virtually indistinguishable.

Photo by Noah Tanen

So what actually makes them better in New York? In my opinion, it’s the people. Bagels arrived in New York City by way of Ashkenazi Jewish immigrants from Poland in the late 1800s, and ever since, New Yorkers have been perfecting the craft of bagel rolling and boiling, holding on fiercely to tried and true techniques and recipes even in the modern era.

After all, this kind of passionate local culture is what makes regional food special. When you have a history spanning centuries and generations of people making the same food, often in competition with one another, it’s that pride and local association which produces greatness. It’s why Philadelphia makes the best cheesesteaks, Texas has the best barbecue, and why New York City makes the greatest bagels.

Even if you’re not in or from New York City, you can make homemade bagels yourself. I’ll be trying my hand as well. Stay tuned to our Instagram for an upcoming episode of Noah Tackles: Bagels coming next week.


Have you ever made bagels from scratch? Let us know in the comments!

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

Noah Tanen

Written by: Noah Tanen

Test Kitchen Content Creator at Food52

7 Comments

Gammy February 3, 2025
Make bagels from scratch a couple times a year using Stella Park's recipe, (https://www.seriouseats.com/homemade-bagels-recipe). The recipe uses a yukone to stay fresh longer and employs an overnight rise in the fridge. Downside is the recipe only makes 8 bagels in a batch, but the flavor and texture are wonderful and they sure beat most commercial bagels (NYC ones excluded, of course!).
 
Smaug February 4, 2025
Looked up the recipe- seems like it could be increased fairly easily, though you might need to run it through the food processor in batches. Eight is generally a pretty good number for items like this to be used up in a reasonable amount of time, but of course it depends on how fast you go through bagels.
A yukone, in case anyone was wondering, is a Japanese thing; it is made by boiling flour to release its starch. Its addition in bread doughs makes for a hard, shiny crust and, according to Ms. Parks, allows the bagels to stay fresh much longer than your average bagel.
 
Gammy February 4, 2025
These bagels do stay fresher longer and the yukone may help the crust although I also do the water + barley malt syrup quick boil pre-baking. The biggest drawback for me is the refrigerator space needed for that overnight slow rise. Eight bagels fit nicely on one baking sheet, wouldn't have room for two. (The fresh bagels also freeze very nicely!)
 
Smaug February 4, 2025
I love the way recipe writers blithely have us putting trays of stuff in our refrigerators- must be nice having one of those giant commercial units. Could you possibly stack two trays with some spacers- cans, maybe, between them? I know when I do that sort of thing I'm usually piling the trays on top of a pile of assorted groceries, but if you can actually clear off a shelf that might work.
 
Gammy February 4, 2025
TBH, I've never tried 2 trays at once. We have a French door fridge and there are split shelves inside. Even so, I usually end up balancing my tray as best I can on the stuff already on that shelf and pray for no earthquakes!
 
scott February 3, 2025
The fact that you article starts with Texas having the best barbeque makes anything you say after than moot.
 
lamb February 4, 2025
Came here to say the same thing. BBQ is one thing a true foodie would never declare one place as having the best. Too many variations in style.
 

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