And now ... for the dessert ...
Doughnuts have a disputed history . One theory suggests they were invented in North America by Dutch settlers , and in the 19th century , doughnuts were sometimes referred to as one kind of oliekoek ( a Dutch word literally meaning " oil cake "), a " sweetened cake fried in fat ."
Hanson Gregory , an American , claimed to have invented the ringshaped doughnut in 1847 aboard a limetrading ship when he was 16 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 to have later taught the technique to his mother . Smithsonian Magazine states that his mother , Elizabeth Gregory , " made a wicked deepfried dough that cleverly used her son ' s spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon , along with lemon rind ," and " put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center , where the dough might not cook through ", and called the food ' doughnuts '.
According to anthropologist Paul R . Mullins , the first cookbook mentioning doughnuts was an 1803 English volume which included doughnuts in an appendix of American recipes . By the mid19th century , the doughnut looked and tasted like today ' s doughnut , and was viewed as a thoroughly American food .
" Mmmmmm … doughnuts ." Homer Simpson