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America's Melting Pot
Bialys hero image coming soon
Late 1800s-present - Polish Jewish immigrants from Bialystok and New York Jewish bakers
Bialys are not bagels without holes. They are their own Ashkenazi bread: baked rather than boiled, dimpled in the center, and traditionally filled with onion and sometimes poppy seeds. Polish Jewish immigrants brought them to New York, where bakeries kept the tradition alive.
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Difficulty
Moderate
Prep time
35 minutes plus rising
Cook time
15 minutes
Total time
50 minutes plus rising
Servings
8 bialys
Region
New York City
Era introduced
Late 1800s-present
Introduced by
Polish Jewish immigrants from Bialystok and New York Jewish bakers
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The bialy came from the Jewish bakers of Bialystok and found an American home in New York City. Unlike a bagel, it is not boiled; it is shaped with a center depression and baked with an onion filling. Lower East Side bakeries made bialys a beloved but more localized cousin to the bagel, and modern revivals continue to treat them as a piece of immigrant food memory.
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