The onions are chopped and then put through a grinder extracting the onion juice, the liquid of which is used in making the bagel instead of water and the remaining onion shreds are dehydrated, and the bagel gets coated with their pungency.  The onion extraction gives these bagels intense onion flavor.

Onion bagels at Rose Foods

That’s the art of the onion bagel as explained to me by Kevin Gravito, the bagel baker  at Rose Foods. He also said they’re more labor intensive to make than other bagels.

I bought half a dozen earlier this morning, including one that was toasted and spread with cream cheese, Nova, dill, capers and onion.

This is the art of the onion bagel in Maine.  And I savor it as I  recall so fondly from a lifetime of enjoying them at the source in New York. Rose Foods bagels are the closest we get to New York style bagels.

Onion bagels are not available regularly at Rose Foods (most often on Sundays, but not always), but when they are you can smell them baking a block away, and you know that you’re in for bagel nirvana as this iconic style of bagel sits so proudly in Portland.  Rose Foods onion bagel is a rare find in our northern clime because few other bagel purveyors make them in Maine.

Montreal style bagels at The Purple House

Its only equal is the Montreal style bagel that chef and baker Krista Dejarlais makes at her North Yarmouth shop, the Purple House.  Even though it’s a 30 mile round trip from Portland to Purple House, it’s well worth it  aided and abetted by a stop on the return trip to pick up a batch of more bagels at Rose Foods.

Postscript

I received several letters from friends and family that more or less debunk my recollection of NY onion bagels

This first is from my friend Sue, who I quote here:

What you remember about a New York Onion bagel has morphed since your years in New York until there is NO quintessential New York Onion Bagel. Zabars has one and Fairway has one and every corner coffee shop has one and the carts on the corners on 57th St. have one. None of them remind me of my childhood. Some are hard outside, soft inside, some are doughy, some are crispy. It was only on a recent trip to Atlantic City to the local store named CASELS which is an institution like Fairway, did I find a delicious, old fashioned, perfectly created “New York Onion Bagel. I also found a perfect Cinnamon bun that made taste buds dance. Excellence is always rare and these days will be found in the most unusual places.

And the second is from my brother who is 7 years older than me.  He said:

It’s odd, but I don’t remember ever having an onion bagel  in New York when I was younger. I don’t think they had them then. Our Sunday bagel feast consisted of regular (delicious) NY bagels (and the occasional Bialy), well lathered in cream cheese, with some Lox or smoked whitefish.