Bagels Lab150 recipes

Bagels Lab

Bagels: what 150 recipes agree on

A stiff, lean dough: water, malt or sugar, salt and yeast per 100 g of flour.

150 recipes from 71 sites, each reduced to grams and written as baker's percentages: grams of each ingredient per 100 g of flour, so a small recipe and a double batch line up. Below: the typical batch, how far recipes stray from it, and a page for every recipe with a link to the original.

Recipes

150

from 71 sites

Typical flour

500 g

about 4 cups

Oven

425°F

220°C · median of 128

Bake time

20 min

most 18 to 24 min

The typical batch of bagels

The median of all 150 recipes for each ingredient, scaled to 500 g of flour. No single recipe is exactly this: each line is the middle of its own distribution. “Most recipes” means the middle half, from the 25th to the 75th percentile.

Typical bagels recipe in grams, with the range most recipes use
IngredientGrams
FlourThe scale for everything else500 gabout 4 cups
WaterMost recipes use 255 to 315 g295 gabout 1 1/4 cups
Malt or sugarMost recipes use 9 to 37 g20 gabout 1 1/2 tbsp
SaltMost recipes use 7 to 12 g10 g
YeastMost recipes use 2 to 8 g6 g

Bake425°F (220°C) for about 20 minutes.

Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, milk and other liquids 240 g.

Every recipe, ingredient by ingredient

Each dot is a recipe, placed by grams of the ingredient per 100 g of flour (100% would be as much as the flour). The shaded band is the middle half of recipes and the line is the median.

  1. Water

    median 59% · most 51 to 63%

    Bagel dough is stiff, far drier than most bread, which gives the dense, chewy crumb.

    0%20%40%60%80%
    Each dot is up to 4 recipes.

    range 40 to 75%

  2. Malt or sugar

    median 4% · most 1.8 to 7.3%

    Barley malt syrup or sugar feeds the yeast and browns the crust; cinnamon-sugar bagels sit at the top. The boiling-water malt is counted as an extra.

    0%10%20%30%
    Each dot is up to 4 recipes.

    range 0 to 23% · 16% use none

  3. Salt

    median 1.9% · most 1.4 to 2.3%

    About 2% of the flour.

    0%2%4%6%
    Each dot is up to 4 recipes.

    range 0.6 to 4.5%

  4. Yeast

    median 1.1% · most 0.4 to 1.6%

    Less yeast and an overnight cold rise is the New York route to flavor; sourdough bagels use starter and no commercial yeast.

    0%1%2%3%4%
    Each dot is up to 4 recipes.

    range 0 to 3.9% · 18% use none

Where recipes disagree

Measured by how far apart the 25th and 75th percentile recipes are. The widest gaps are where the choice of recipe matters most.

  • Malt or sugar. The middle half of recipes use 1.8 to 7.3% of the flour weight in malt or sugar, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 4.2 times as much as one at the 25th.
  • Yeast. The middle half of recipes use 0.4 to 1.6% of the flour weight in yeast, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 4.0 times as much as one at the 25th.

Recipes agree most on water and salt: water 51 to 63%, salt 1.4 to 2.3% for the middle half.

Around the world

132 of the recipes come in 3 languages with enough of each to compare: English 87, French 29, German 16.

No language differs from English on any ingredient by more than chance would explain.

Every language, ingredient by ingredient →

What the words in titles mean

English recipes whose titles use a word, against the ones that do not. What recipe writers do when they pick the word, not proof that it makes the texture.

“homemade”

25 recipes vs 62

Recipes called “homemade”: more water (62% vs 57%).

“homemade” (25)the rest (62)middle half of all

  • Waterrecipes called homemade 62% vs the rest 57%

“sourdough”

19 recipes vs 68

Recipes with “sourdough” in the title: most use no yeast (94% vs 1%).

“sourdough” (19)the rest (68)middle half of all

  • Yeast · share using anyrecipes with sourdough in the title 5% vs the rest 98%

All 2 words, and 1 that change nothing →

The most-reviewed recipes

30 bagel recipes have 50 or more reader ratings. A rating count says how many people rated a page, which follows its traffic more than its quality. Against the other 120, medians per 100 g of flour, compared within each language:

The most-reviewed recipes use 19% more salt than the rest (2.2% against 1.8% of the flour weight).

50+ ratings (30)the rest (120)middle half of all

  • Waterthe most-reviewed recipes 60% vs the rest 58%

  • Malt or sugarthe most-reviewed recipes 3.9% vs the rest 4.2%

  • Saltthe most-reviewed recipes 2.2% vs the rest 1.8%

  • Yeastthe most-reviewed recipes 1.2% vs the rest 1.1%

Most reviewed

  1. Sourdough Bagels · farmhouseonboone.com4.8 from 1,526 ratings
  2. Sourdough Bagels Recipe · littlespoonfarm.com5.0 from 1,100 ratings
  3. Homemade Bagels Recipe · sallysbakingaddiction.com4.9 from 791 ratings
  4. Easy New York-Style Bagel Recipe · biggerbolderbaking.com4.8 from 518 ratings
  5. Einfache Bagels · gutekueche.at · German4.6 from 513 ratings

Oven temperature and time

128 of 150 recipes state an oven temperature, and 36% of those bake at 425°F (220°C). The middle half bake at 400 to 430°F. The other 22 do not say.

  • 425°F47 recipes
  • 400°F31 recipes
  • 450°F19 recipes
  • 350°F13 recipes
  • 475°F8 recipes
  • 500°F5 recipes

144 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 20 minutes and the middle half bake 18 to 24 minutes.

Temperature and time together

The single most common pairing is 425°F for 20 to 25 minutes, with 29 of the 126 recipes that state both.

Rows: oven °F (°C in gray), every 25°F. Columns: minutes, 5 a column, from the start of each; the middle of a stated range counts. Darker: more recipes, up to 29 in one cell. Outlined: the median, 425°F for 20 minutes. 126 recipes state both. The edge rows and columns also hold the few recipes beyond them.

Recipes to start with

Closest to the typical batch

Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.

Most water

Least water

All 150 bagel recipes →

Go deeper

Top sources

  • 10ptitchef.com
  • 9kingarthurbaking.com
  • 8gutekueche.at
  • 6cuisine.journaldesfemmes.fr
  • 6cuisineaz.com
  • 5baking-sense.com
  • 4chefsimon.com
  • 4iambaker.net
  • 4ichkoche.at
  • 4leitesculinaria.com
  • 4okonomikitchen.com
  • 4sallysbakingaddiction.com

In 7 languages: English 87, French 29, German 16, Dutch 7, Italian 6, Spanish 4, Portuguese 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 71 sites in all. No site contributes more than 12 recipes.

How the numbers are made

Every ingredient line is converted to grams and grouped (butter and oil count as fat; white, brown and liquid sweeteners as sugar), then divided by the flour weight. That baker's percentage is the only comparison that holds across recipes of different sizes.

94% of the 1,162 ingredient lines got a weight. 44% of those weights were printed by the source; the rest were converted from cups and spoons with standard densities, so treat single recipes as close, not exact. Frosting, glaze, streusel and other toppings are listed on each recipe page but left out of the percentages.

A recipe outside the plausible range for any ingredient is left out rather than allowed to stretch every chart; it is usually a different dish with the same name or a misread line. Of the pages fetched, 285 were left out: 129 with no flour, or none that could be weighed, 117 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (water 92, salt 18, malt or sugar 7), 25 with a title that names a different dish, 7 too many lines without an amount, 6 duplicates of other pages, and 1 a listing page, not a recipe page.

Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.