Bialy (bread) on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Bialy ( yi, ביאלי), a Yiddish word short for ''bialystoker kuchen'' ( yi, ביאליסטאקער קוכען), from the city of
A chewy
Bialy recipe
at Jewishfood-list.com {{Jewish baked goods Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Ashkenazi Jewish culture in New York City Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Poland Cuisine of New York City Jewish breads Polish cuisine Poppy seeds Yeast breads
Białystok
Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area.
Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...
in Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
, is a traditional bread roll in Polish Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine
A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...
.
Overview
A chewy yeast
Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to consti ...
roll bearing similarity to the bagel
A bagel ( yi, בײגל, translit=beygl; pl, bajgiel; also spelled beigel) is a bread roll originating in the History of Jews in Poland, Jewish communities of Poland. It is traditionally shaped by hand into a roughly hand-sized ring from yeaste ...
, the bialy has a diameter of up to . Unlike a bagel, which is boiled before baking, a bialy is simply baked, and instead of a hole in the middle it has a depression. Before baking, the depression is filled with diced onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the oni ...
and other ingredients, sometimes including garlic
Garlic (''Allium sativum'') is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the genus ''Allium''. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion. It is native to South Asia, Central Asia and northe ...
, poppy seed
Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countrie ...
s, or bread crumbs
Bread crumbs or breadcrumbs (regional variants including breading and crispies) consist of crumbled bread of various dryness, sometimes with seasonings added, used for breading or crumbing foods, topping casseroles, stuffing poultry, thicke ...
.
Variations
The bialy was brought to the United States by Polish Jewish immigrants in the late 1800s, and became a staple of Jewish bakeries in the Northeastern United States. Bialys became a popular breakfast bread inNew York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
and its suburbs, especially among American Jews
American Jews or Jewish Americans are American citizens who are Jewish, whether by religion, ethnicity, culture, or nationality. Today the Jewish community in the United States consists primarily of Ashkenazi Jews, who descend from diaspora J ...
. Bialys are often made by bagel bakeries, but the bialy has failed to reach mainstream popularity. Preparing bialys in the traditional manner is time-consuming, so many bakeries now use dough mixers, as is common in bagel making. Bialys are considered an iconic New York City food, and can be difficult to find outside that area. However, bialys are sold frozen by a number of brands, such as ''Ray’s New York'', in supermarkets
A supermarket is a self-service shop offering a wide variety of food, beverages and household products, organized into sections. This kind of store is larger and has a wider selection than earlier grocery stores, but is smaller and more limite ...
across the US.
In popular culture
In 2000, former ''New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' food writer Mimi Sheraton wrote a book dedicated to the bialy and its role as a symbol of the Jewish heritage of Białystok, entitled ''The Bialy Eaters: The Story of a Bread and a Lost World''.
See also
*Kossar's Bialys
Kossar's Bialys (Kossar's Bialystoker Kuchen Bakery) located at 367 Grand Street (and Essex Street), on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, New York City, is the oldest bialy bakery in the United States.
Background
The bialy gets its name f ...
, the oldest bialy bakery in the United States
* Cebularz
Cebularz is a wheat dough pancake in Polish and Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, with a diameter of 15-20 cm, topped with diced onion and poppy seed (15-20%), characteristic for Lublin cuisine.
Cebularz is one of the most popular dishes in the Lublin ...
and Pletzel
Pletzel, platzel or pletzl (, , cookie or cracker) is a type of Jewish flatbread similar to focaccia.
Overview
A type of pletzel smothered in onion and poppy seeds is known as the ''onion pletzl'', ''onion board'' or ''onion flat'' in the US. It ...
, two similar breads
References
External links
Bialy recipe
at Jewishfood-list.com {{Jewish baked goods Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine Ashkenazi Jewish culture in New York City Ashkenazi Jewish culture in Poland Cuisine of New York City Jewish breads Polish cuisine Poppy seeds Yeast breads