Montreal-style Bagel

Montreal-style Bagel

The Montreal bagel, (sometimes beigel; Yiddish בײגל beygl), is a distinctive variety of handmade and wood-fired baked bagel. In contrast to the New York-style bagel, the Montreal bagel is smaller, sweeter and denser, with a larger hole, and is always baked in a wood-fired oven. It contains malt, egg, and no salt and is boiled in honey-sweetened water before being baked in a wood-fired oven, whose irregular flames give it a dappled light-and-dark surface colour.

In many Montreal establishments, bagels are still produced by hand and baked in wood-fired ovens, often in full view of the customers. There are two predominant varieties: black-seed (poppy seed), or white-seed (sesame seed).