Lender’s Bagels burst on the scene in 1960 with frozen bagels

Harry and Rose Lender brought their family from Lublin, Poland, to New Haven, Conn., in the late 1920s and set up a bagel bakery. All four sons – Hyman, Sam, Marvin and Murray – joined the business. They enjoyed great success, as Lender’s Bagels grew to become a national brand.

 

Murray Lender ascended to lead the company after his father’s death in 1958. He was a marketing guru, and by 1960, Lender’s Bagels was selling frozen bagels to supermarkets, a completely revolutionary approach. The company fully automated the manufacturing process to mass produce consistently uniform bagels.

 

All the consumer needed to do was pop pre-sliced Lender’s Bagels into a toaster. When done, schmear them with butter, cream cheese or jam…and enjoy. Murray Lender became a television advertising celebrity in the 1970s, injecting comedy into the company’s commercials.

 

Up until this time, bagels were a “best kept secret” of urban markets. Murray Lender’s stated mission was to “bagelize” America, riding a trendy wave toward “ethnic foods.” He sought to popularize the bagel all across the land as “the Jewish English muffin.” 

Commercials that paired Lender’s Bagels with Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese “showcased a delicious marketing opportunity.” One thing led to another and corporate courtship. In 1984, when the Lender family agreed to sell the bagel brand to Kraft Foods, “the event was billed as the mock wedding of the century.” The bride was “Phyl,” and the groom was “Len.”

The sale of bagels began to outstrip the sale of another product with a hole in it – the doughnut – in the battle for “breakfast food supremacy,” said food writer Jonathan Rowe of Brooklyn, N.Y.

 

Many voices in New York City, the “capital of America’s bageldom,” rose up to protest against the advent of frozen bagels. Someone asked: “How can that be a bagel? A doughnut dipped in cement and then frozen.” 

The thought of toasting bagels also gets bagel purists riled up. “You should ‘almost never’ toast a fresh bagel,” reported freelance journalist Taylor Tobin of Austin, Texas, “because doing so can mess with its flavor and texture.” 

Two exceptions are: “If you plan on loading your bagel with toppings, you’ll want to toast it, so it doesn’t get soggy, and if your bagel is not fresh-out-of-the-oven, toasting can actually help it,” she wrote.

Chef Melissa Weller, master baker at High Street on Hudson in New York City, says a bagel “begins to stale two to three hours after it comes out of the oven.” From that point on, “you should always toast a bagel” before serving or consuming.

The key to a better Southern bagel, wrote Rebecca Jackson of Bedford County, Va., is to schmear it with a glob of “‘menta cheese.” She echoed the late Bill Neal, former owner and chef of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, N.C., who dubbed pimento cheese the “pâté of the South.”

“Everyone’s mother or grandma seems to have a special recipe for ‘menta cheese,” Jackson said.

 

So does Rossi Anastopoulo of King Arthur Baking Company, which is headquartered in White River Junction, Vt. She offers her “Peppy Pimento” recipe as the perfect topping for a bagel and a super-cheesy breakfast.” Go to the King Arthur website.

Marc Fintz, director of business development at Davidovich Bakery in New York City, said that he advises customers who are seeking a bagel “zest-fest” to try Davidovich’s pimento cheese – “a creamy blend of mayo, mini red peppers and cheddar.”