As chef Richard Coppedge of the Culinary Institute of America explains, superior bagels are made from shaped dough that's first left to sit in a refrigerator for a couple of days. This process is called retarding because the cooler temperatures slow down the activity of yeast in the dough as it rises. This longer, slower fermentation gives the microbes more time to generate tasty flavor compounds.
Then comes the key step to making what Coppedge calls a "true bagel" — boiling. Traditionally, Coppedge tells The Salt, the chilled dough rings are poached or boiled in a solution of water and malt barley for anywhere from 30 seconds to 3 minutes. This pre-gelatinizes the starch in the dough, locking the liquid inside of it and expanding the interior. As the video puts it, it's like flash-frying a steak before grilling it to seal in the juices. The boiling also thickens the crust — Coppedge says it "is essential to produce a more 'chewy' bagel."
Watch the video here:
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