Among the pastry
treats called crullers, beignets or churros, 
there
exists the ubiquitous term doughnut, sometimes spelled donut. Although
it may refer to just about any type of deep fried cruller, there are two
forms that are always called doughnuts, one with jelly or custard embedded
in it, the other torus-shaped; it is round, with a hole in the center.
A doughnut of this type may be made with yeast dough or cake dough, it
may be fried or baked, it may be covered with sugar and cinnamon, with
chocolate or any other frosting and decorated with sprinkles, but it always
has a hole in the center.
Why is it called a doughnut and where did the hole come from?, one might ask. Or, indeed, why does it have a hole? Culinary historians are apt to ask, When did it first come about? and, true to form, they debunk the legends that abound.
The popularity of the doughnut in the United States is thought to have begun in the Dutch settlement of Nieuw Amsterdam, now New York. The settlers brought with them the tradition of taking bits of left-over bread dough and frying them in oil. They were called olykoeks (oily cakes) because of the oil (and later, lard) used in frying them. Often the dough was tied in a knot before frying, and therefore in English they were called dough knots. Or perhaps they were round and the size of a walnut, in which case they were called dough nuts. In any case, those are the two possible explanations for the name.
The legend about the hole tells the story of a sea captain from Maine named Hanson Crockett Gregory who invented the hole by impaling a fried doughnut on the steering wheel of his vessel during some turbulent weather. Nonsense, say the historians, but -- aha! In 1916 The Washington Post sent a reporter to interview the 85 year-old Captain Gregory at the Sailors' Snug Harbor home in Quincy, Massachusetts. Neither a steering wheel nor a storm was involved, but the Captain said he was indeed the inventor of the hole in the doughnut. He said he was about 16 years old and said he couldn't stand the uncooked centers of the fried cakes they made on board. Using a tin pepper can, he cut a hole in the dough before frying, and it worked. As he put it, "No more indigestion. No more greasy sinkers -- just well-done, fried-through doughnuts." When he put in to port at Camden, he told his mother about his invention and she made a batch and sent them on to Rockland, and eventually nobody ever made doughnuts any other way.
I like that story and for $3.95 you can buy a copy of the complete interview from The Washington Post archives, or read it on a website below.
Meanwhile, there are scads of recipes for doughnuts online, both the yeast variety and the cake variety, but I'm listing here the one my mother gave me.
Quick and Easy Doughnuts
1 tube refrigerator
biscuits
vegetable oil for
frying
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Open the tube and
separate the biscuits, patting them lightly.
Use a thimble or
a bottle cap to cut a hole in each one.
Warm about 2 inches
of cooking oil in a large, deep skillet.
When the oil reaches
350 degrees, add the doughnuts (and the "holes" as well, if you like) and
fry until golden brown on one side, then flip them over with a spatula
and fry the other side as well.
Drain the doughnuts on paper towels until they are slightly cool.
Mix the sugar and cinnamon in a ziploc bag.
Add the doughnuts
one at a time to the bag and shake until covered with the sugar mixture.
INTERESTING LINKS
1916
Interview with Capt. Hanson Gregory
The
Food Timeline History of Doughnuts
Was
John F. Kennedy a Jelly Doughnut?
Who
Cooked That Up? is copyrighted 2006 by J.J. Schnebel
all rights reserved for
your pleasure and enlightenment
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