oristar, boobie, Phoenix is right. Don't make yourself meshuga trying to figure out language from dialect from mindset. Eat a bagel and relax.
Nimh, What's to be afraid?
Osso, I should know from making bagels? I don't know from making bagels. I'm a maven in the bagel-eating department. And, yes, old-fashioned bagels were hard and chewy.
Yeah, I know, but I don't know they were hard to make. Ok, ok, I'll look it up already.
But I don't like bagel, Roberta. I wanna taste some fresh yellow-fin tuna that is well-cooked, chicken drumstick, with a cup of coca cola.
And, of course,
relax.
Osso, Even my grandmother, who was a master baker and cook, never made a bagel that I know of. I doubt that they're difficult. Just hard. :-)
Oristar, Whatever makes you happy. You want tuna, chicken, and Coke. You got it. Enjoy. :-)
Most italians don't make their own panettone. I do. Not that I am so great, just don't have it in every nook and cranny like they do.
If memory serves, the hard thing about making a good bagel is the kneading of the dough. In the old days, before dough-kneading machines, bagel bakers tended to be men exclusively because it takes a good deal of muscle to properly handle the heavy, wet and soggy dough. Then you shape it and drop it into boiling water. (I said 'bagel bakers' because that's we call 'em. But a true bagel, of course, is not baked; it's boiled and eaten after it has cooled sufficiently. When I say 'sufficiently,' I mean 'when it's cold.' You eat it warm, it could sit in your stomach like a rock until it cools. From this you shouldn't know.)
Isn't bagel-making a two-step process? The boiling and the browning. Boiled bagels wouldn't be brown on top, would they?
I've worked with soggy dough. The muscles? Well, they are talking big batches....
I found a lot about water bagels at homecooking.about.com, with history and recipe. The water bagel recipe is copyrighted so I didn't copy it here.
So I'm sitting and watching my Thursday night programs (or pograms as my grandma used to say) and I'm feeling, oy, like death is imminent. Such a heaviness in my chest you shouldn't know from it. Then, voila, a burp, and all was well. This reminded me of the "good grepse," which was sought by all my family members after eating one of my grandmother's delicious and demonically heavy meals. In my family, Bromo Seltzer in the blue bottle was dessert. It took me all this time to understand and appreciate the difference between a burp and a good grepse. Ah, a mechiah.
Osso, BTW, did you make the bagels? If so, how did they come out?
BTW, in my family, burp was pronounced boip.
Oy Roberta, your grandma sounds like mine....always with the guilt...all you want to do is watch some TV, and talk of the pogroms comes up...I feel your pain...
No, I didn't, but it looks like fun. (That's a good bagel link, re water bagel history...)
Cav, My grandma wasn't referring to pogroms--the kind in Russia with the cossacks. She was referring to pograms--the kind you find on tv. She just left out the first R.
Osso, You gonna make a bagel or what?
Roboita, I figured that out, I was just being punny.
Yer so right, 'Boita. A good grepse is a mechiah, indeed.
Not this week, Roberta, but when I get part II of my computer revamping done and get my printer back up, I'll print out the recipe and consider the matter further. How hard could it be? (Wait, you'll see....)
Cav, What am I? A mindreader? I thought you misunderstood. So I misunderstood and you didn't. So shoot me.
Andy, Glad you agree.
Osso, I don't know how hard it can be. You'll tell us.
Wot the smeg is a grepse?
How should I know from a grepse?
dlowan- A grepse is that immensely satisfying belch that one has after a good meal!
