It can be difficult for some people to eat healthy on a regular basis. When I discovered on the morning news that the first Friday of this month (June 2, 2017) would be National Donut Day (and free donuts were to be given out everywhere) I wondered how long some people could stay away from this sweet treat. (There were a lot of people who wouldn’t stop at one donut if they started with the first one.)
The origins of donuts in America came with settlers from the English county of Hertfordshire, brought these yeast-raised Hertfordshire Nuts from a 1750 cookbook. They also go by the name dow nuts.
“The optimist sees the donut, the pessimist sees the hole.” (Oscar Wilde)
Eighteenth century Dutch colonists (Netherlands) made olykoeks, which were similar to beignets. Archaeologists have found fossilized remains that appear to be ancient Native American donuts. The original pastries (no holes) were the size of walnuts (thus the name). Cake donuts became popular in the 1830s. Donuts cooked more evenly if the middle was poked.
During World War I, Salvation Army volunteers sought to boost soldiers’ morale with food. Donuts could be fried on a camp stove, and were strongly associated with mom and home. Donuts kept their comforting reputation into World War II. The American Red Cross outfitted trucks with donut machines and gramophones. Young female volunteers drove to the front lines where they made fresh donuts.
"If you stop eating donuts you will live 3 years longer. It's just 3 more years that you want a donut." (Lewis Black)
The Salvation Army launched National Doughnut Day during the Great Depression in 1934. It was a way to raise money and awareness for their social service programs. On this day coffee and doughnuts were given to American soldiers who were fighting in the trenches in France during World War I. The Salvation Army fed the homeless with the cheap pastries and coffee. This added up to 2.5 million donuts in a single month in New York City.
“Donuts: is there anything they can't do?” (Matt Groening)
When police car patrols became common in the 1940s and 50s, one of the few eateries open during graveyard shifts were the donut shops. Police officers got into the habit of going there for a cup of coffee and a donut. The first doughnut machine was invented in New York City. Russian refugee Adolph Levitt created what could be the 20th century's most important invention in 1920. More than 10 billion doughnuts are eaten yearly in the US. That averages out to every American eating around thirty-two doughnuts per year (for every man, woman and child). [i]
“Whether you take the doughnut hole as a blank space or as an entity unto itself is a purely metaphysical question and does not affect the taste of the doughnut one bit.” (Haruki Murakami, author of A Wild Sheep Chase)
[i] Sources used:
· “10 Things You Didn't Know About National Doughnut Day” by Laura Clark
· “7 Things You Didn’t Know About Donuts for National Donut Day” by Noah Kaufman
· “National Donut Day 2014: 13 Things You Didn't Know About Donuts” by Vi-An Nguyen
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