The word bagel is thought to derive from the Yiddish word bugel, and from the German word bugel, which means a round loaf of bread. It is also often listed as a derivative of the German word buegel, meaning stirrup, and referring to a legend that the bakers of Vienna commemorated John III's victory over the Turks in 1683 by molding their bread into the shape of stirrups, because the liberated Austrians had clung to the victorious king's stirrups as he rode by. Ashkenazi immigrants in the 1880s (descendents of the medieval Jewish communities of the Rhineland) brought the bagel to the Lower East Side New York City, where it continues to flourish as a local cuisine popular not only with any one ethnic group, but as an icon of the city. The same phenomenon has happened to the Montreal bagel. Until the 1920s, bagels were rare in other parts of the United States other than a few cities with large Eastern European Jewish populations. The bagel came into more general use throughout North America in the last quarter of the 20th century. Today, bagels are enjoyed all over the world, and have become one of the most popular breakfast foods.

History of the Bagel

Traditional New York Style Bagels