Does the bagel really have Arab origins? Reem Kassis investigates.
I ambled down the cobblestone steps to the Damascus Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem countless times as a child, offering the boy driving the ka’ak cart two shekels for a sesame ka’ak and some za’atar wrapped in newspaper scraps. If I wanted to treat myself, I bought the ka’ak from the oldest bakery in the city along with some falafel and hay-roasted eggs.
It never occurred to me as a child that the delicious, if commonplace, treat, sometimes called a “Jerusalem sesame bagel,” might have a rich history, nor did it occur to me later in life that the ring-shaped bread might have anything to do with other, similarly shaped breads. But an examination of ancient Arabic cookbooks suggests that ka’ak may in fact be the precursor of the bagel.
The possibility first presented itself when I came across a recipe for a kind of ka’ak in the 13th century Arabic cookbook, one of the earliest cookbooks on record in the world, in which the dough is shaped, boiled, then baked. The chapter opens, “We begin with several kinds of simple bread, the accompaniment to every meal. First, ka'ak, which are of several varieties.
In addition to this clue to where the ring-shaped bread might have entered the Polish kitchen, it’s relevant to note that rye was historically the dominant grain/flour in eastern Europe. And yet, the Polish obwarzanek was made from wheat flour, a grain native to the Eastern Mediterranean, which archeological evidence indicates was probably first cultivated in the southern Levant.
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