Hey, smarty pants, want to play an eating game?
Sounds like my tummy wants to play.
Okay, you only get one guess, so make it count.
Ready? It's breakfast time, and I'm about to eat a food with a hole in it.
Any guess what it is?
Did you say a donut?
So close. While I do love donuts, Today, I'm ready to nosh on a whole other kind of food.
If you said bagels, you just got a hole in one.
Get it? It's a golf and a bagel joke.
Excuse me, trusty narrator!
Chet Nickerson here!
I don't mean to interrupt, but you're holding up the line!
Chet Nickerson! Are you here to do a news story on Leo's Bagels, my favorite bagel store?
Uh, no. I'm here because it's actually Chet's Bagels now!
Shad's bagels? You sell bagels?
Indeed, I do! When I'm not breaking news, I'm breaking bread.
So, what can I get you?
Um, Smarty Pants, have you ever had a bagel?
What kind do you like?
Me? I like... I like them all.
I'll take a dozen assorted, please.
Great! Here's one plain, one sesame, one pumpernickel, one salt, one onion, one garlic, one egg, one cinnamon raisin, one whole wheat, one cheese, and one blueberry.
Plus one everything bagel to make it 13, what we call in the business a baker's dozen.
Wow, Smarty Pants. That's a lot of different kind of bagels.
How many have you tried?
Would you like any spreads?
I've got butter, cream cheese, scallion cream cheese, veggie cream cheese, lox spread, cinnamon raisin cream cheese, sun -dry tomato cream cheese, blueberry cream cheese, strawberry cream cheese, bacon jalapeno, garlic and herb, or maybe you'd like some smoked fish.
I've got lox, sable, sturgeon, whitefish, trout.
Yikes, smarty pants, so many options.
What do you like to put on your bagel.
Me too. My favorite is the schmear.
That's where I take a knife full of cream cheese and just schmear it across a toasted bagel.
Oh, I'll take a rainbow bagel with a schmear.
Coming right up. Trusty, have you decided?
No, but I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves.
Before me and the Smarty Pants can decide what to put on our bagels, first we'd love to know how bagels are made.
Where do they originate?
What's the most popular kind?
And and most importantly, why do they have a hole in the middle?
Ooh, I'd like to know that, too!
Great! Then it's time for another whiff of science and history on...
Who's smarted? Who's smarted?
Who's smart? Is it you?
Is it me? Is it science?
Or history? Listen up, everyone!
We make smarting lots of fun on Who's Smarted?
Hey, smarty parents.
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join the millions of families benefiting from ixl visit ixl .com slash smarted and get 20 % off your membership that's ixl .com slash smarted for 20 % off give your child the gift of learning with ixl all right trusty narrator what do you want to know first first chet i gotta ask what happened to leo and how'd
you wind up with his bagel store oh leo retired and moved down to Florida.
As for me, I've always loved bagels.
I used to come in here every morning when I was doing the morning news.
When Leo told me he was thinking of selling, I jumped at it.
And that's the whole story.
Haha, I get it. Whole story.
Bagels have holes. I meant that's the entire story.
Not everything's a bagel pun.
Sorry, maybe we should just check out the kitchen.
Great idea. Oh, my.
That smell. It's truly incredible.
I said the same thing the first time I came back here.
There's nothing like the smell of fresh bagels in the morning.
How many bagels do you make each day?
A lot. Do you know how many bagels get eaten every year?
Why, in the U .S. alone, around 205 million people will eat a bagel this year.
Whoa. Hey, Smarty Pants, any guess which state eats the most bagels?
Is it A, New Jersey B, Colorado Or C, New York If you said New York, I'm talking to you They should change it from the Big Apple to the Big Bagel But New Jersey and Colorado love their bagels too And so do people around the world Including Canada, China, Turkey, Ukraine, Japan, Israel Finland, Poland, and Russia.
Although in some of those places, their bagels look and feel a lot different than ours.
So how are your bagels made, Chet?
Throw on a hairnet and let's find out.
The thing about bagels is the process for making them has remained virtually unchanged for hundreds of years.
Same ingredients, same methods, same delicious bagels.
I see. So what main ingredients go into making bagels?
Smarty Pants, do you think you know?
Is it water, yeast, salt, flour, or malt?
I bet a lot of you Smarty Pants are on to us.
All of those ingredients go into making bagels.
Nice job. Speaking of jobs, if you look over there, you'll see one of my bakers putting the malt syrup and yeast into a very large bowl of warm water.
In just a second, you'll see and hear steam rising from it.
We call that stage one.
And over here, I've got another baker combining the flour and the salt.
Let me guess, stage two?
You learn fast, trusty.
Now, over here at this table, you'll notice they are now using big spatulas to combine the ingredients from stages one and two.
Whoa, that's the biggest spatula I've ever seen.
It almost looks like a shovel.
Yes, and soon you'll be shoveling freshly baked bagels into your mouth.
You definitely have a way with words, Chet.
Next comes the part of the process that requires putting in a little muscle In fact if you wash your hands you can take part in it too trusty narrator Ooh I'd love that Alright smarty pants I'm about to take part in the bagel making process where you smush and work the dough with your hands Is this called
A. Seeding B. Leading C.
Kneading or D. Reading If you said C, kneading, you need to take a bow, because you're right.
Once the dough has the right consistency, it's time to break off some smaller pieces and roll them into a ball, while dusting it lightly with flour.
These dough balls then get put onto a large sheet pan where they are covered with a damp cloth.
And that's done to keep the dough moist so it doesn't try out?
Exactly! This process is called proofing.
How long do they stay covered up like that?
About two hours. When they're ready, it's time to bring everything to a table.
where bakers roll out the balls of dough and form them into...
Ah, Smarty Pants. What shape is the dough formed into?
Did you say a ring?
Nice job. But why? Why is there a hole in the middle of a bagel?
Yep, that sure is an age -old question I've asked and answered a lot.
So, does a bagel hole serve an actual purpose Or has it just always been done this way?
And the answer is coming up right after this quick break.
Hi, guys. It's Trusty.
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Hey, smarty parents, I know the struggle of wanting to create the best future for the children in your life.
That's why I'm thrilled to share my experience with IXL Learning.
Recently, the eight -year -old child of one of our main Who Smarted writers started struggling with math.
They tried everything and felt helpless.
Then I told them about our partner, IXL, and it changed everything.
IXL is an online learning program that covers math, language arts, science, and social studies from pre -K to 12th grade.
What sets it apart is how it adapts to each child's needs.
His daughter loves the positive feedback and fun challenges.
And the best part? IXL's research -backed approach has made a world of difference in her confidence and her grades.
It's like having a personal tutor but at a fraction of the cost.
A month of IXL costs less than one hour with a tutor even before our Smarty Family 20 % discount.
Don't let your child fall behind.
Join the millions of families benefiting from IXL.
Visit IXL .com slash smarted and get 20 % off your membership.
That's IXL .com slash smarted for 20 % off.
Give your child the gift of learning with IXL.
Now back to who smarted.
Okay, Chet, I still can't believe you own a bagel store.
You didn't hear it on the news.
I even reported the story.
Anyway, back to bagels.
You asked, why do they have a hole?
Yes, Smarty Pads. Any idea?
Yeah, me neither. Chet?
The answer is, it depends who you ask.
Huh? How so? The most obvious reason is that because bagels are rather thick, having a hole in the middle makes it easier to cook them all the way through on a consistent basis.
If it didn't have a hole, it'd be difficult to tell if the middle was cooked completely for each bagel.
Ah, that makes sense.
Of course, some of the earliest bagel makers in Poland thought the hole was an easy way to stack them up on a dowel or stick in order to transport them.
Oh, that also makes sense.
As for the round shape, the original bagel makers thought it gave bagels magical powers.
Ooh. Okay, that might be a little much.
Let's get back to the cooking process.
What happens next? Aha!
Next comes the part most folks don't know about.
Follow me, but be careful.
It gets mighty hot in this area.
Wow, you're not kidding.
To ensure our bagels have the right amount of crustiness on the outside, they're dunked into a large pot of boiling water.
Interesting. I always thought they just got baked, like bread.
Nope. Bagels be boiled.
How's that for alliteration?
Uh -huh. And how long are they boiled for?
Oh, only about one or two minutes.
Depending on how chewy you like them.
We flip them over about halfway through, so both sides get cooked evenly.
And then it's on to what many consider the tastiest stage.
Welcome to the flavor table.
Oh yeah, check out all of those bagel toppings.
There's sesame and poppy seeds, onion, salt, garlic.
Yep, after the flavors have been added, they go into the oven to get baked.
What about different types of bagels like egg or whole wheat or those dark brown pumpernickel bagels?
For whole wheat, we use whole wheat dough.
And for pumpernickel, we use rye and sourdough.
For egg bagels, we mix egg yolks right into the dough.
And for cinnamon raisin bagels, you guessed it, we add cinnamon and raisins right to the dough.
Hey, Smarty Pants, any idea what the most popular bagel is?
It's gotta be the everything bagel.
It's got everything.
That's a good guess, Chet, but it's actually number three on the list.
Number two is cinnamon raisin.
And number one is...
...blueberry. Wow, I can't imagine the first bagel makers were making blueberry bagels.
Blueberry? What is this blueberry?
Speaking of, how far back do the origins of bagel making go?
Ah, the answer to that, my trusty friend, also depends on who you ask.
Interesting. Some say bagels go as far back as the Middle Ages.
When their roundish bread became quite popular among migrants from Germany that traveled to Poland.
It was similar to what a classic German pretzel looked like.
Another version of the story has it that a baker in Vienna, Austria, Accidentally created the first bagel in the late 17th century Accidentally?
How do you accidentally invent a bagel?
As the story goes, the Austrian baker decided to make a doughy snack As a tribute to Jan Sobieski III, the king of Poland at the time Since the king was an admirer of all things equestrian The baker shaped his dough in the form of a circle and referred to it as a brugel, which is Sherman for stirrup.
Huh, that's great. Well, Chet, I'm impressed.
For a newsman, you sure know your bagels.
I'm sure Leo is smiling, knowing you're carrying on his tradition of bagel making.
That is very kind of you.
Now, if I could just get my order.
Sorry, trusty. There's been a Bigfoot sighting.
I gotta get to the scene to report the story.
Back soon. Feel free to hole up here till then.
Dope. A double order of shout outs to James and Theo in Okotoks, Canada.
You wrote in to say you love Who Smarted because there are so many cool facts and fart jokes.
Yep. Guilty as charged.
Thanks for smarting with us, you two.
This episode Bagels was written by Dave Dough Master Davis and voiced by Adam Locks Davis, Max Cream Cheese Kamasky And Jerry Kolberg Technical direction and sound design By Josh Holiton Who Smarted is recorded and mixed At the Relic Room Studios Our associate producer is Max Kamasky The theme song
is by Brian Just a schmear Suarez With lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis Who Smarted was created and produced By Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Kolberg This has been an Atomic Entertainment production you
