Download top and best high-quality free Bagel PNG Transparent Images backgrounds available in various sizes. To view the full PNG size resolution click on any of the below image thumbnail.

License Info: Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC

The bagel and the historical spelling beigel are bread product originating from the Jewish communities in Poland. It is traditionally formed by hand into a ring of about the size of hand-sized wheat dough with yeast, which is first boiled shortly in water and then baked. The result is a dense, chewy, doughy interior with a brown and sometimes crisp appearance. Bagels are often garnished with seeds baked on the outer crust, the traditional ones being poppy and sesame seeds. Some can be sprinkled with salt, and there are different types of dough, for example, wholemeal and rye. Bagels are eaten fried or unfried.

Although bagel’s origins are a little unclear, it is known that Ashkenazi Jews widely consumed them in the 17th century. The first known mention of the bagel in 1610 was in the Jewish community’s statutes in Kraków, Poland.

Bagels are now a famous bread in North America and Poland, especially in cities with large Jewish populations, many of which have alternative methods of making them. Like other baked goods, pretzels (fresh or frozen, often with various flavors) are available in many of the major supermarkets in these cities.

The basic design of the perforated roll is hundreds of years old and has other practical advantages besides providing more even cooking and baking of the dough: the hole can be used to pass threads or dowels through the bagels groups, which makes handling and transport easier and more attractive for the seller display.

Linguist Leo Rosten wrote in The Joy of Yiddish about the first known mention of the Polish word bajgiel, derived from the Yiddish word for a bagel, in the “Community Regulations” of Kraków in 1610, which states that food was given to women at birth.

In the 16th and first half of the 17th century, bagel became one of the staples of Polish cuisine and mainly of the Slavic diet. Its name comes from the Yiddish word beygal from the German dialect word beugel, which means “ring” or “bracelet”.

Variants of the word beugal are used in Yiddish and Austrian German to refer to a similar form of confectionery (Mohnbeugel (with poppy seeds) and Nussbeugel (with ground nuts) or in South German dialects (where beuge refers to a pile, e.g., holzbeuge “woodpile”. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a “bagel” occurs from the transliteration of Yiddish “beygl”, which comes from Middle High German “böugel” or ring, which itself comes from “bouc” (round) in Ancient Greek-German, similar to Old English bēag “ring” and būgan “to bend, bow”. Likewise, another etymology in Webster’s New World College Dictionary says that the Middle High German form was derived from the Austrian German Begel, such as a croissant, and is similar to a German bugel, stirrup or ring.

Download Bagel PNG images transparent gallery.