I was introduced to bagels in 1968 during my sophomore year at Northwestern. A dorm mate used to drive down to Ashkenaz Deli in the Rogers Park neighborhood (at the Morse Avenue El stop) to pick up bagels and lox. (They must have had two dozen different varieties of lox available, too.)

At the time, they still hand-rolled their bagels (or so the sign proclaimed.) However, by the time we lived in an apartment a few blocks north of there, in 1972, the sign was gone and the bagels weren't quite as good.

Ashkenaz burned down in the late 1970's, I believe, and the Rogers Park neighborhood, which had a number of Jewish stores and restaurants, including a kosher butcher and another butcher that, while not kosher, was the finest butcher shop I've ever been in, is now largely Vietnamese.

For those who don't believe someone could shape over 800 bagels in an hour, there are some YouTube videos available showing how it was done. (I think one of them was from someone who claimed the record, over 1200 bagels an hour.)

See 1979 bagel film for one example.

Good luck finding an old-time bagelmaker to teach you the craft. There probably aren't many of them left, and I suspect they still protect their craft!

• This reply was modified 6 years, 8 months ago by Mike Nolan.

Last year we were in Salt Lake City for my husband's eye surgery. My daughter and I stopped in at Einstein's Bagels for breakfast. When I ordered, I asked the clerk if the bagels were first boiled. He looked at me and asked if I were kidding, but since it was only his second day, he offered to ask the supervisor. The answer later was "yes." I have always been tempted to try bagels, but no such effort as of yet.

Bagels aren't hard to make, though most home bakers will boil them in an alkali solution made with baking soda rather than with cooking lye. (You really do need to wear gloves and use eye protection when using lye. I suspect you have to be careful what kind of pot you use for the lye solution, too, though I've not researched that.)

Several years ago an article in the New York Times suggested taking baking soda and baking it in a hot oven, turning it from sodium bicarbonate to sodium carbonate. That will make a more strongly alkaline solution, though still quite a bit weaker than one made with lye (sodium hydroxide.) I still haven't tried this.

Though I've done it a few times, I don't usually take the time to retard the bagels for 24 hours to develop the classic sour tang of a NY bagel, I can't say anybody's noticed.

I've tried several bagel dough recipes, the one I like best is Peter Reinhart's recipe in his Artisan book. He puts some barley syrup in the dough (and in the boiling water)

The thing about barley malt, though, is that it colors the dough, so your bagels won't have a classic white interior. I like the flavor it brings, though. Non-diastatic barley malt powder is nearly colorless, and brings a similar sweetness but without the color.