A bagel and cream cheese (also known as bagel with cream cheese) is a common food pairing
in American cuisine, the cuisine of New York City, and American Jewish cuisine, consisting
in its basic form of an open-faced sandwich made of a bagel spread with cream cheese.
The bagel is typically sliced into two pieces, and can be served as-is or toasted.
The basic bagel with cream cheese serves as the base for other sandwiches such as the
"lox and schmear", a staple of delicatessens in the New York area, and across the U.S.
== American cuisine ==
A bagel with cream cheese is common in American cuisine and the cuisine of New York City.
In the United States, the bagel and cream cheese is often eaten for breakfast, and with
smoked salmon is sometimes served for brunch.
In New York City circa 1900, a popular combination consisted of a bagel topped with lox, cream
cheese, capers, tomato, and red onion.The combination of a bagel with cream cheese has
been promoted to American consumers in the past by American food manufacturers and publishers.
In the early 1950s, Kraft Foods launched an "aggressive advertising campaign" that depicted
Philadelphia-brand cream cheese with bagels.
In 1977, Better Homes and Family Circle magazines published a bagel and cream cheese recipe
booklet that was distributed in the magazines and also placed in supermarket dairy cases.
=== American Jewish cuisine ===
In American Jewish cuisine, a bagel and cream cheese is sometimes called a "whole schmear"
or "whole schmeer", indicating a bagel with cream cheese.
A "slab" is a bagel served with a slab of cream cheese atop it.
A "lox and a schmear" refers to a bagel with cream cheese and lox or smoked salmon.
Tomato, red onion, capers and chopped hard-boiled egg are additional ingredients that are sometimes
used on the lox and schmear.
All of these terms are used at some delicatessens in New York City, particularly at Jewish delicatessens
and older, more traditional delicatessens.The lox and schmear likely originated in New York
City around the time of the turn of the 20th century, when street vendors in the city sold
salt-cured belly lox from pushcarts.
A high amount of salt in the fish necessitated the addition of bread and cheese to reduce
the lox's saltiness.
It was reported by U.S. newspapers in the early 1940s that bagels and lox were sold
by delicatessens in New York City as a "Sunday morning treat", and in the early 1950s, bagels
and cream cheese combination were very popular in the United States, having permeated American
culture.
== Mass production == Both bagels and cream cheese are mass-produced
foods in the United States.
Additionally, in January 2003, Kraft Foods began purveying a mass-produced convenience
food product named Philadelphia To Go Bagel & Cream Cheese, which consisted of a combined
package of two bagels and cream cheese.
== In popular culture == Bagels and cream cheese were provided to theater
patrons by the cast of Bagels and Yox, a 1951 American-Yiddish Broadway revue, during the
intermission period of the show.
The revue ran at the Holiday Theatre in New York City from September 1951 to February
1952.
A 1951 review of Bagels and Yox published in Time magazine helped to popularize bagels
to American consumers throughout the country."Bagel and Lox" is a humorous song about the virtues
of the bagel, lox, and cream cheese sandwich.
It was written by Sid Tepper and Roy C. Bennett.
It has been recorded by several different artists, including Eddie "Rochester" Anderson
and, more recently, Rob Schneider, Joan Jaffe, and Oleg Frish.
The lyrics to the chorus are:
== See also ==
== Notes