Respect The Schmear: Bagel Pros Say THIS Is The Ideal Amount Of Cream Cheese

Few things can ruin a bagel lover’s morning more than unwrapping a bagel and finding a slab of cream cheese so thick, half of it squeezes out of the sandwich at first bite. Or, maybe worse, splitting the two halves to find a paper-thin layer of schmear.

There’s a fine line between tangy, chewy perfection and a wet, gummy mouthfeel. So how much cream cheese is necessary for the ideal bagel experience?

In our survey of nine bagel shops around the United States, pros are slathering on an average of 0.62 ounces of cream cheese per ounce of bagel.  That’s roughly 6 tablespoons on an average-sized bagel served sandwich-style — a hefty helping. But there are notable differences across bagel styles and regions.

New York-style bagel shops tend to follow a heavier ratio of cream cheese to bagel, at 0.67-to-1, slathering on about 4 ounces of schmear per bagel — that’s one-quarter of a pound. To Jesse Spellman, a partner at Utopia Bagels in Queens and Manhattan, that serving size makes for the perfect bite on a standard 6-ounce bagel; it’s a bit messy and complements the texture of the chewy bagels, but it’s not too sloppy, he said.

Fausto “Tito” Quizhpe, an Ess-a-Bagel store manager in New York City, backs up that stance when speaking of the chain’s 6-ounce bagels. “If you put too much, the cream cheese is going to overflow the bagel,” he explained. “If you put too little, you don’t taste it.”

Across the country and over in the Pacific, Honolulu-based Tali’s Bagels & Schmear stays true to its New York roots. “We’re advertising a New York product outside of New York, so we have to make sure that we live up to that standard,” said co-founder Talia Bongolan-Schwartz, a New York native. “I always tell [our employees], I’d rather the customer come in next time and ask for light cream cheese than to think that we don’t respect the schmear. So we really lather up our bagels with schmear.”

The result: a sandwich that’s nearly equal parts cream cheese and bagel. The thick spread fills the cracks and air bubbles that develop from the dough’s long proofing and fermentation process and provides a satisfying contrast to the crisp exterior, Bongolan-Schwartz explained.

Shops in Montreal, the other bagel capital of the world, provide a similar balance, but less schmear overall. St-Viateur Bagels , which has served traditional Montreal-style bagels since 1957, tops its just-over-3-ounce bagels with roughly 2.4 ounces of cream cheese, according to co-owner Vince Morena. The bagels themselves are thinner and about half the size of a New York-style bagel, he explained. They’re also crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside, and not so dense, so you don’t really need schmear. The traditional Montreal practice is to grab a bagel hot from the oven and eat it without any toppings, he added. Cream cheese is a welcome accessory, but not a necessity.

Elsewhere on the continent, bagel shops follow comparable schmear-to-carb ratios. Boichik Bagels in California’s Bay Area slaps 3 ounces of cream cheese on its 4.4-ounce bagels, said founder and CEO Emily Winston.

Bethesda Bagels stays close to the average, too. The bagel shop, with five locations in the Washington, D.C., area, takes its spread quantity seriously. “We train our employees to [err] on the side of caution and always put a bit extra on there,” said Vice President Noah Fleishman. “In fact, new employees do not move forward in the training process until they have mastered the art of schmearing cream cheese on a bagel correctly.”

It may seem like all the pros lean heavy-handed, but some bagel experts are firmly placed in the “light cream cheese” camp. Take, for example, Jordan Renouf, the owner of Boston’s Brick Street Bagels . He believes many foods are designed to be vehicles for another food. Bagels, Renouf says, are not a vehicle for cream cheese. The spread simply helps to enhance the gastronomic experience, just like the gravy on top of mashed potatoes. His personal ideal: a 0.4-to-1 cream cheese-to-bagel ratio, equating to 2 ounces of schmear on a 5-ounce bagel.

Just like its northern neighbor, Black Seed Bagels in New York City keeps cheese to a minimum on its New York-Montreal hybrid bagels.

“I like my cream cheese to complement my bagel, to support the bagel’s mission, and to complete my bagel experience,” co-founder Noah Bernamoff explained. “It’s not meant to be the star of the sandwich or its primary flavor or texture — like the bass guitarist in a band or a relief pitcher on a baseball team.”

To the native Canadian (who personally prefers an even lighter spread), too much cream cheese creates a “globby mouthfeel,” while too little runs the risk of melting on the warmed bagel, “creating an unwelcome wetness and a forlorn sense that the cream cheese has abandoned your bagel,” he said.

At Milwaukee-based Ruby’s Bagels , owner Daniela Varela also follows a lighter ratio of 0.47-to-1, which she says is the sweet spot for Midwesterners. The shop’s bagels are light and fluffy compared to the heavy New York-style offerings, so any more schmear would mask the flavor and texture, Varela said. Like Renouf and Bernamoff, Varela sees cream cheese as a supporting character. “If the bagel is really good and they do skimp out on the cream cheese. I’m not too mad at it,” she said. “If your bagel is — I’m not gonna say stale — but just, like, a harder chew, harder bite, I have to really pull, and then you skimped out on cream cheese. ... This is not working out for me.”

The bottom line: The pros say 2 to 4 ounces of cream cheese is the best helping for bagels of any size. But with so much polarity in the debate, it’s safe to say there’s no “wrong” amount of cream cheese to slap on your bagel. Apply as much or as little as you please, even if others find your serving size to be a dry disgrace or claggy mess. So long as it’s a solid bagel, it’s worth taking a bite.