The delicacy of warmed glazed powdered sugar doughnuts has been a preserved tradition for centuries, however the origins have been long since forgotten. From the history of the doughnut to the beginning of its franchises; the donut has a long and complex history that no one seems to talk about.
New mysteries. New day. Fresh doughnuts.
David Lynch
The earliest found documentation of the doughnut goes back long before the discovery of North America in ancient Rome where Greece cooks would fry strips of pastry dough and cook them in honey and fish sauce. In Medieval times cooks would fry small portions of unsweetened east and dip them in syrup to sweeten them. This was brought to north Europe in the 1400s and became popular throughout England, Germany, and the Netherlands. In the 15th century Germany, sugar was very expensive since it was hard to find, so doughnuts were often cooked with savory 3 fillings like meat or mushrooms. Later the pilgrims would bring the doughnut to America bringing the popularization of it.
Eventually these uneven holes were created to the ring that we’re familiar with today. The invention came out of necessity, when egg yolks were added to the dough, it was discovered that the eggs would often end up raw in the center after frying and the exterior would cook before the inner part of the doughnut. Captain Hanson Gregory a Dutch sailor, whose mother made him some doughnuts for a voyage is credited to taking out the center of the doughnut. There are many stories about what happened, with one version being that Gregory’s ship hit a storm and he impaled the doughnut on one of the Spooks on the steering wheel to keep his hand free the spook drove a hole into the raw center of the doughnut and the captain liked the doughnut better this way. And BOOM just like that the doughnut was born. Unfortunately this story is most likely a legend, but it’s still a fun story.
There isn’t a problem on this earth that a doughnut cannot make better.
Roseanne Barr
During World War One the popularity of donut skyrocketed and there was low supply since it was all handmade. The doughnut machine was born because of this problem. Russian born immigrant Adolf Levitt created the machine called the “wonderful almost human automatic doughnut machine” The machine automatically formed the dough rings and dropped them in the hot dishes of oil and used the conveyor belt to mass produce the doughnut. After World War One in the the rise of commercial Donuts shops saw the creation more efficient with companies such as Krispie Kreme’s making the automatic ring king junior which could produce a fresh doughnut every 5 seconds. When companies like Dunkin’ Donuts and Krispy Kreme came into the picture they revolutionized the pastry industry by shifting production from home kitchens, to automated mass marketing retail peaking the rise of major chains.
Overall, the history of the donut is a little glimpse of the centuries of culture that loved doughnuts. So next time you eat a doughnut think about what it would feel like to have a doughnut with fish grease in it!
