Who invented the first donut with a hole & why?

Question

Who invented the first donut with a hole & why?

Answer 1

Here is what one website says: "Doughnuts have a disputed history. One theory suggests that they were introduced into North America by Dutch settlers, who were responsible for popularizing other American desserts, including cookies, cream pie, and cobbler. This theory is bolstered by the fact that in the mid-19th Century doughnuts were called by the Dutch olykoeks ("oily cakes"). However, there is also archaeological evidence that the pastries were prepared by prehistoric Native Americans in southwestern USA.

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 and later taught the technique to his mother.

The earliest known recorded usage of the term dates an 1808 short story  describing a spread of "fire-cakes and dough-nuts." 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."[4] These "nuts" of fried dough might now be called doughnut holes. Doughnut is the more traditional spelling, and still dominates outside the US. At present, doughnut and the shortened form donut are both pervasive in American English. The first known printed use of donut was in a Los Angeles Times article dated August 10, 1929."

Answer 2

The Pennsylvania Dutch were the first to make Donuts. They put holes in them to cook evenly, and it made them easier to extract from the pan. Most utensils were wooden back in the day, and it was easier to poke a spoon handle through the hole to remove it.

Answer 3

I've heard that it was invented so that the donut could be cooked evenly throughout.  A solid lump tends to overcook the outside and leave the inside raw.

Answer 4

idk his name but he invented little cakes that he could put on his finger and eat while riding a horse

its from cow boy times i kno that

Answer 5

google it