Thehistoryof doughnuts is hard to trace . Did doughnut history begin the first time a fresh shekels was fry in oil ? Does it start when the first hole was punch into a yeasted pelf before frying ? And what do oil balls have to do with it?Doughnuts ( or doughnut , if you wish ) are at once a scrumptious conflux of international fried lucre traditions and a distinctly American confection . Read on to read where annulus make out from ( to the better knowledge of the historical criminal record ) , how Doughnut Lassies came about during World War I , and other interesting fact about the history of the doughnut , adapted from an episode of Food story on YouTube .
Fried Dough and the Invention of the Doughnut
Humans first start frying dough thousands of years ago . One of the earliest records of the marriage between rock oil and dough appears in the Bible . A verse in Leviticusmentions possibly fry “ cakes amalgamate with oil , of okay flour ” as an acceptableoffering to God . The ancientGreeks and Romansenjoyed deep-fried bar with dearest , and different versions of the unfermented treat finally spread throughout Europe .
But all that fried deliciousness is problematical for trace the history of the doughnut , because there are just so many potential pedigree . Traditionally the dish has been traced to Dutch cuisine . WhenDutch immigrantsarrived in New York City , formerly know as New Amsterdam , they brought food from the Netherlands with them . One democratic formula was olykoeks , or oil patty , which were made by frying lumps of boodle in pork barrel fat . or else , they were calledoliebollen , or “ oil musket ball ” in English . An early connexion between oil balls and annulus is in Washington Irving ’s 1809 bookA History of New York , from the rootage of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty . TheSleepy Hollowauthor wrote of “ clod of sweetened dough , fried in hog ’s fat , and call ring , orolykoeks . ”
While the most widely take on interlingual rendition of the American doughnut ’s chronicle manoeuvre to this Dutch provenance , not all nutrient historians are confident . Some cogitate doughnuts issue forth from anEnglish fried kale ; they could be a scrumptious amalgam of English , Dutch , and German fried carb traditions . ( No matter what , though , it ’s probably for the best that we stop cry them oil balls . )
What most think of as a doughnut — a ring - shaped goody with a hole in the middle — may not have appeared until 1847 . That ’s when an American sailor named Hanson Gregory after claimed he came up with the culinary innovation .
As he tells it , annulus in those days were just solid hunk of dough , and when they were crispy on the outside they ’d still be raw in the substance . He was shape aboard alime - trading schoonerat age 16 when he had the idea to remove the middle of the patty altogether . Using the palpebra of a cannister pepper box seat , he “ cut into the middle of that donut the first hole ever catch by deadly eyes , ” as he assure theWashington Postnearly 70 year after .
When he get to bring he went home to Maine and register this unexampled doughnut method to his mother . Her ring - mould doughnuts became a local sentience , and the world of deep - fried pastry would never be the same .
The Etymology of the WordDoughnut
While it ’s clean-cut where the first half of the term come from , thenutindoughnutis more mysterious . Someetymologiststhink it ’s a reference to the original human body of the bite , which were small and circular — like nuts — before they gained their distinctive jam . Another possibility posits that thenutcomes from genuine crank . Or at least culinary junky , like Amygdalus communis and pecan . To solve the trouble of undercooked dough in the middle of their oleaginous patty , Dutch cooks sometimes gorge them with ingredients like nuts . The rise of the mob - shaped donut made this unnecessary , but the trick may have had a lasting wallop on the afters ’s name .
The language we use to describe fried ring of bread would undergo another transformation over the next century . By the early 1900s , many doughnut purveyors hadshortened the name todonut . Today this alternate spelling is nearly as plebeian as the original , but it did n’t get to be that manner overnight . The version starting withdoughmaintained its domination until around 1950 , when the simplify word start tosteadily increase in popularity . The firstDunkin ’ Donutsopened in Quincy , Massachusetts , that same year , and the occupation went with the snappy spelling ofdonutfor its name . The growth of the chain in the latter half of the twentieth hundred correlates with the unforesightful Logos ’s upswing — though now that Dunkin ’ has dropped theDonutsfrom its title , the older spelling may be poised for a comeback .
World War I and Doughnuts
As of 2020 , there were more than18,000 doughnut shopsin the U.S. , but the tasty delicacy was n’t like a shot embraced around the country . The deep-fried treats were largely consider a Yankee food for thought throughout the nineteenth century , and it took a stint abroad in the 1910s for them to realize their all - American reputation .
During World War I , theSalvation Armysent 250 Volunteer to France to render snack and supply to U.S. troops send there . The female volunteers had planned to bake cake and pies for soldiers on the front telephone circuit . There was just one trouble : Ovens became harder to get at the nearer they got to the field of honor . But they did have pans at their garbage disposal , which they could fill with lard and heat up over a fire . Switching their direction to doughnuts was a no - brainer .
The volunteers had all the ingredients they needed to make ring , plus the equipment to fry them in . When it was fourth dimension to determine the angelic bite , they took a page from Hanson Gregory ’s book and used what they had on mitt . They rolled out the dough with juice bottles and shell casings . They cut the doughnuts with empty baking powder cans and punched out the hole using part of a broken coffeemaker . The women , who come to be known as Doughnut Lassies , were so consecrate to their work that they were uncoerced to lay on the line their animation . In her bookThe War Romance Of The Salvation Army , Evangeline Booth , the girl of the Salvation Army ’s founders , recounts one military volunteer ’s response when she was told to barricade serving doughnuts to troops under ardor . She said to the regiment loss leader , “ Colonel , we can perish with the men , but we can not give them . ” Booth , by the way , eventually became the general of the Salvation Army .
Doughnut Lassies are also the rationality we havetwo national doughnut twenty-four hour period . In 1938 , the Salvation Army declared the first Friday in June to be National Doughnut Day as a room of promoting its charity work . The second National Doughnut Day is celebrated on November 5 , and its origins are less clear . Because it precipitate so close to Veterans Day on November 11 , some historians suspect it was borne from the pastry ’s link to the military as well . Or maybe we all just wanted another exculpation to eat some fried scratch .
Doughnuts Around the Country (And the World)
Doughnut story in America varies by neighborhood . While Dunkin ’ has dominated the East Coast for X , it ’s never really take off on the West Coast . The chain ’s absence gave smaller doughnut store in California a chance to expand , and an entrepreneur named Ted Ngoy decidedly took advantage of that opportunity .
Ngoy arrived in Southern California in 1975 as a refugee from Cambodia . He tried his first doughnut shortly after immigrating to the U.S. It reminded him of the round , fried pastry callednom kongserved out of street carts back home , and he decided he would make his sustenance off the confections . He did this by becoming a trainee at a doughnut chain called Winchell ’s , take over his own store , and eventually buying a 2nd doughnut shop call Christy ’s . Under his possession , Christy ’s grew into a local successful Sir Ernst Boris Chain . He charter his acquisition to other Cambodian refugees in the area looking to get started in business . Ngoy buy at many of the refugees personally before place them up with living accommodations , loans , and their own store to consort .
Giving other refugees a leg up was n’t just a squeamish affair to do ; it also move around out to be a expert business move : By 1985 , Ngoy owned around 60 shop and had make millions of dollars through his sugary empire .
The Donut King ’s impact on the industry can still be seen today . Decades later , many of southerly California’sindependent doughnut shopsare still owned by Kampuchean immigrants and their descendant . Ngoy is also responsible for the preponderance of pink doughnut boxwood . He told theLos Angeles Timesin 2017 that either he or his former line of work partner Ning Yen had enjoin the color early in his career because they were look for a cheap choice to the stock white boxes . Their supplier , Westco , offer them pinkish box seat at a discount , and customers apace grew habitual to the typical packaging .
Ring - shaped doughnuts are an American invention , but edulcorate , fried dough is consumedaround the world . In Israel , it ’s estimated that over 15 million jelly - filled doughnuts known as sufganiyot are eaten in the week around Hanukkah . In China they revel crispy golden sticks calledyoutiao . Churros are consumed in many countries , and the Gallic love unclouded dough fritter calledpets de nonne , or “ nun ’s flatus . ” Suddenly greasy clump do n’t sound too bad .
