Doughnuts have a disputed history. One theory suggests that doughnuts were introduced into North America by Dutch settlers, who were responsible for popularizing other American desserts, including cookies, apple pie, cream pie, and cobbler. This theory is bolstered by the fact that in the mid-19th century doughnuts were called olykoeks (oily cakes) by the Dutch. However, there is also archaeological evidence that the pastries were prepared by prehistoric Native Americans in the southwestern United States.
Hansen Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring-shaped doughnut in 1847 aboard a lime-trading ship when he was only sixteen years old. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes and with the raw center of regular doughnuts. He claimed to have punched a hole in the center of dough with the ship’s tin pepper box.
The first cookbook mentioning doughnuts was an 1803 English volume which included doughnuts in an appendix of American recipes. By the mid-19th century the doughnut looked and tasted like today’s doughnut and was viewed as a thoroughly American food. Washington Irving’s reference to “doughnuts” in 1809 in his History of New York is more commonly cited as the first written recording of the term. Irving described “balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks.” These “nuts” of fried dough might now be called doughnut holes.
The first doughnut machine was invented in 1920, in New York City, by a man named Adolph Levitt, a refugee from czarist Russia. Levitt’s doughnut machine was a huge hit causing doughnuts to spread like wildfire.
By 1934, at the World’s Fair in Chicago, doughnuts were billed as “the hit food of the Century of Progress”. Seeing them made by machines “automatically” somehow made them seem all the more futuristic. Doughnuts soon became popular everywhere. Legend says that dunking donuts first became a trend when actress Mae Murray accidentally dropped a donut in her coffee one day at Lindy’s Deli on Broadway.
Click here for my Coffee & Donuts recipe! It’s a really yummy recipe I came up with that is like mocha cheesecake with a donut crust.
From Coast to Coast! Krispy Kreme produces enough doughnuts in about a week to make a line of doughnuts from New York City to Los Angeles.
Comments on: "Food Fact Friday: National Doughnut Day" (6)
thanks for the fun history! my favorite donuts are the powdered ones from dunkin donuts that are filled with chocolate whipped frosting
sadly there are no DD near me so no donuts today!
mmm now I want a donut!
Thanks for the info! Not a big donut fan, but if I had to choose- a peanut donut from Dunkin would be my choice!
I had a donut from Dunkin donuts on National Donut day!! I love the one with sprinkles :~))
I'm not sure I could name a favorite doughnut… I've never crossed a donut I didn't like.
My faves include blueberry donuts, simple glazed donut holes, apple fritters, crumb donuts, powdered sugar donuts, Krispy Kreme's old-fashioned chocolate… Yeah, I could seriously go on and on.
And now that you know what a donut addict I am, I have to tell you that this post was totally making me drool!! Can I celebrate National Doughnut Day a few days late…?
Man, really want to know how can you be that smart, lol…great read, thanks.