Is NYC Water Really the Secret to Better Bagels?

Byamazingfoodstv


Many people say that the secret to NYC bagels is in the water. We did a side by side test of Brooklyn water bagels and Boston water bagels to see if that’s true.

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29 Comments

  1. If you use barely malt syrup in the dough and bath— if you use a real sourdough starter— if you make the dough dense (55 to 57 percent hydration by bakers percentage)— if you bread flour or any flour with a higher gluten content—

    you have NY bagels anywhere in the country.

    I know because my coworkers from NY say my bagels are exactly the same compared to ones back home.

    The only difference is the nostalgia and the lore— nobody else makes bagels than NY.

    But if you modify your recipe with my suggestions— you’ll have a ny bagel.

  3. Wrong! That’s because Boston has good water and good bakeries too. It’s just that the bagel was not as popular there and it’s not known for bagels. I’m sure they are good there too. Montreal and Paris have great water for baking too. But here is where you messed up and are giving bad information. Your sample size was too small. Did you test Florida. Horrible water. Or LA or San Diego ? How about Texas. Or Mexico. I have been to all of these places and lived in most. And the water does make a huge difference. Pizza and bagels in Florida and California are terrible when made from the tap. And when using filtered it’s better. But when they import from NY they are the talk of the town. This is not science folks. This is taking water from similar mountain regions and calling them different. Horrible video posing as science. When in doubt and not in NY. Please try filtered water. But it won’t be the same as NY

  9. Unfortunately, finding a good bagel outside of nyc is impossible. The bs stores in other cities pass off as bagels are terrible. Might as well go to the frozen section and get a Lender's bagel than eat some garbage from other cities.

  10. Always wondered about flour quality.
    In most cases, there's only a couple brands of flour available to most consumers. How important is the flour itself to the final flavor?

    My natural assumption is that it's pretty substantial, flour being the primary ingredient… but just how substantial is it really, in flavor, if you test say 3-4 different brands of flour, with supposed increases in flour quality? Your standard supermarket flour vs some italian/french high quality import, vs a heirloom strain or something… I'm really curious about that, whether it's worth it to go out and hunt a really unique flour for the taste.

  11. I already know ATK is pretty dumb, but the NYC water "argument" really pertains to PIZZA, not bagels. And since you provided absolutely zero proof pertaining to the bagels (outside of reading off a cue card), you did nothing to move the needle.

  14. The difference between NYC bagels and ones outside is how they process it. Not all places boil their bagels before baking, and that really is the major difference in quality. The other difference is probably the species of yeast. If they use a mother dough, then that probably determines flavor more.

  21. I don’t know what the secret is — I’ve been a New Yorker all my life, and have never had as good a bagel outside the area. We excel at bagels, pizza, corned beef, pastrami. But Mexican food? Key lime pie? Fuggetaboutit!!

  23. did you just compare the water in the mixture, OR both the mix and the water to boil them in? Having had a bagel in about every state, I still feel a cup of joe and a bagel from a street vendor in NYC IS one of life's little treasure's.

    "keep the faith people, and keep on keeping on"

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