[Sca-cooks] Baker of Bagels in the 11th C

[Terry Decker]

> I ran across a passing comment about a Jewish "ka'ki" or "Baker of Bagels" 
> in Vol. 2 of Goitein's _A Mediterranean Society_.
>
> Does anyone have more specific information, or recipes for 11th- 12th C 
> bagels?
>
> Samia

I wonder if this may not be a mistranslation due to a shift in usage. 
According to a chance reference I encountered, the earliest appearance of 
the term beygl is from 1610 in the city ordinances of Cracow. 
Apochryphally, bagels were first created to celebrate Jan III Sobieski's 
breaking of the Siege of Vienna in 1683.  There is some archeological 
evidence that a bagel-like bread was being produced by the Uighurs around 
100 CE, but there isn't enough detail to determine the extent of similarity.

Arguably, the earliest possible recipe for bagels is from Messibugio's Libro 
Novo ( 1557), but there is disagreement as to whether the recipe is a bagel 
or not.  To my knowledge there are no bagel recipes from the 11th or 12th 
Centuries and, IIRC, the time frame predates all known bread recipes in 
Europe.

Bear