Bialys Lab
Bialys: what 22 recipes agree on
The bagel's baked cousin: water, salt and yeast per 100 g of flour, onion filling set aside.
22 recipes from 20 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.
A small lab: few sites publish bialys as structured recipes, so only 22 met the bar. Treat the ranges below as rough; they will firm up as more recipes are found.
Recipes
22
from 20 sites
Typical flour
500 g
about 4 cups
Oven
475°F
245°C · median of 19
Bake time
14 min
most 10 to 19 min
The typical batch of bialys
The median of all 22 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.
| Ingredient | Grams |
|---|---|
| FlourThe scale for everything else | 500 gabout 4 cups |
| WaterMost recipes use 305 to 345 g | 315 gabout 1 1/3 cups |
| SaltMost recipes use 9 to 11 g | 10 g |
| YeastMost recipes use 2 to 4 g | 2.5 g |
| Sugar or malt63% use none; the rest mostly 7 to 15 g | none |
| Fat81% use none; the rest mostly 11 to 15 g | none |
Bake475°F (245°C) for about 14 minutes.
Volumes are approximate: flour at 125 g a cup, sugar 200 g, butter or oil 225 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.
Water
median 63% · most 61 to 69%
A softer, wetter dough than a bagel, which is why a bialy is chewy but not dense; it is baked, never boiled.
range 57 to 78%
Salt
median 2% · most 1.8 to 2.1%
About 2% of the flour.
range 1.1 to 2.4%
Yeast
median 0.5% · most 0.4 to 0.8%
Less yeast and a slow or overnight rise is the traditional route; the center is pressed flat before baking so it does not puff.
range 0 to 1.4% · 18% use none
Sugar or malt
median 0% · 63% use none
Usually none or a little malt or sugar; the flavor comes from the onion filling.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 4.4% · those that use some, mostly 1.3 to 2.9%
Fat
median 0% · 81% use none
Traditional bialys use none; the oil in the onion filling is counted as an extra.
Each dot is up to 2 recipes. range 0 to 4.8% · those that use some, mostly 2.2 to 3.1%
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.
- Sugar or malt. 63% of recipes use no sugar or malt; those that do mostly add 1.3 to 2.9% of the flour weight.
- Yeast. The middle half of recipes use 0.4 to 0.8% of the flour weight in yeast, so a recipe at the 75th percentile has 2.0 times as much as one at the 25th.
Recipes agree most on water and salt: water 61 to 69%, salt 1.8 to 2.1% for the middle half.
Oven temperature and time
19 of 22 recipes state an oven temperature, and 26% of those bake at 450°F (230°C). The middle half bake at 450 to 480°F. The other 3 do not say.
- 450°F5 recipes
- 475°F5 recipes
- 425°F4 recipes
- 500°F4 recipes
- 480°F1 recipe
19 recipes state a bake time. Taking the middle of any stated range (“55 to 65 minutes” counts as 60), the median is 14 minutes and the middle half bake 10 to 19 minutes.
Recipes to start with
Closest to the typical batch
Nearest the median on every ingredient at once.
- Classic Bialys · kingarthurbaking.comwater 61% · salt 2%
- How to Make Bialys: A Step-by-Step Guide · alexandracooks.comwater 68% · salt 2%
- How To Make Bialys · panningtheglobe.comwater 65% · salt 2.2%
- Meet the Bialy: The Nearly Forgotten Cousin of the Bagel · tasteofhome.comwater 63% · salt 1.9%
- Bialy Recipe: Classic Jewish Onion Rolls from Białystok · kosherbreadpro.comwater 62% · salt 1.8%
Most water
- Classic Homemade Bialys Recipe · mycookingjourney.comwater 78% · salt 1.6%
- Bialy Recipe · eatthelove.comwater 74% · salt 1.4%
- Homemade Bialy Recipe · whatjewwannaeat.comwater 72% · salt 2%
Least water
- Sourdough Bialy Recipe · baking-sense.comwater 57% · salt 2.4%
- Bialys with Traditional Fillings and Beyond · biscuitsandburlap.comwater 58% · salt 1.9%
- Classic Polish Bialy Recipe - ChainBaker · chainbaker.comwater 58% · salt 2%
Go deeper
- DiscoverEvery recipe plotted on any two ratios.
- CalculatorStart from the typical recipe, move the ratios, get grams.
- IngredientsWhich ingredients recipes use, and the choices they make.
- RatiosWhich ingredients rise and fall together.
- TimelineRecipes by publication year and how the typical one shifted.
- All RecipesEvery recipe, sortable, with a page each.
- ClustersThe styles the numbers fall into.
- Decision TreeA few questions that narrow the recipes to the ones you want.
Top sources
- 2baking-sense.com
- 2chainbaker.com
- 1alexandracooks.com
- 1bakefromscratch.com
- 1biscuitsandburlap.com
- 1breadtopia.com
- 1cuisineaz.com
- 1eatthelove.com
- 1feelingfoodish.com
- 1hotbreadkitchen.org
- 1jamiegeller.com
- 1kingarthurbaking.com
In 3 languages: English 20, French 1, German 1. Lines in other languages are read in their own units and words, and each recipe page links to the original. 20 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 144 ingredient lines got a weight. 59% 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, 5 were left out: 3 outside the plausible range on some ingredient (salt 2, water 1), 1 with a title that names a different dish, and 1 too many lines without an amount.
Every recipe page links to the original, which is where the method is. Recipe Lab does not republish instructions or photos.