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#73722 - 06/20/02 06:38 AM doughnut, donut
TheFallibleFiend veteran Registered: 01/23/02 Posts: 1523 Loc: Virginia, USA	My grandma used to make 'em homemade in the evenings and we'd watch Mission Impossible together while tossing 'em down. My grandpa's favorite doughnut as the KK cruller - a week old cruller was better than the freshest anything else. We move to northern va and there's no Krispy Kreme, so I go to the local places and the Dunkin Donuts. They're not as good, really. Not what I would call a doughnut. But in the last few years I discovered one hidden away and I've also seen 'em in the local grocery. I recently introduced a friend to KKs. He says they shouldn't even call 'em doughnuts - but something much better. (Well, we argue about everthing else - why not this?) I've never quite understood why doughnut holes are not called dough balls or something like that. I've never understood why a doughnut was called a doughnut, because it doesn't look very nuggetty. But I had a fleeting insight into the obvious yesterday and it occurred to me that it was doughnut as opposed to doughbolt. No idea of the etymology, but this seems plausible. k
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#73723 - 07/22/02 09:49 AM Re: doughnut, donut
Sparteye Pooh-Bah Registered: 01/05/01 Posts: 1773	FF, none of my usual sources discussed the etymology of "doughnut", except to observe that it is a combination of DOUGH + NUT. According to the Word Detective, doughnuts were originally made without the holes, so the simple explanation seems to be that they were nutshaped and made of dough, hence, dough nuts. http://www.word-detective.com/back-j2.html#doughnut One other possibility: one of my etymological dictionaries discusses the use of "nut" as a color; dough nuts are usually nut brown, so that might have re-enforced the association between nuts and the fried dough. And for the non-cooks in the crowd: the holes are put in doughnuts to make them cook evenly. A large doughnut will not be cooked in the middle if not punctured with the hole. The shape of a cooked hole is basically the shape of doughnuts as originally made.
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#73724 - 07/22/02 09:52 AM Re: doughnut, donut
belligerentyouth old hand Registered: 12/20/00 Posts: 1055 Loc: Berlin	> A large doughnut will not be cooked in the middle if not punctured with the hole. But if it has jam in the middle of it......
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#73725 - 07/22/02 10:46 AM Re: doughnut, donut
FishonaBike veteran Registered: 10/11/00 Posts: 1346 Loc: Sussex, England	But if it has jam in the middle of it...... Absolutely, Belligerent One! I never knew anything but jam doughnuts (i.e. dough balls with raspberry jam in the middle) until I went on holiday to Canada around 1975. "Ring" doughnuts didn't get to the UK until about 10 years after that, as far as I'm aware. Accepted that my awareness can lack something sometimes Curious, isn't it?
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#73726 - 07/22/02 10:51 AM Re: doughnut, donut
wwh Carpal Tunnel Registered: 01/18/01 Posts: 13858	Dear BY: Surely you don't think the jam is in before the doughnuts are cooked? I'm quite sure it is injected after they have been cooked. Like cream in a cram puff.
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#73727 - 07/22/02 11:44 AM Re: d'oh, nut!
maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757	around 1975. "Ring" doughnuts didn't get to the UK until about 10 years after that... erm, hate to tell you this my fishy friend, but I ate ring doughnuts from around 1967/8 in Maidstone, Kent - and not mere cardboard specials, but split open laterally and filled with fresh cream in addition to jam... [/dribble] :)
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#73728 - 07/22/02 12:05 PM Re: doughnut, donut
Fiberbabe old hand Registered: 01/12/01 Posts: 771 Loc: Portland, Oregon	Dr Bill > I'm quite sure it is injected after they have been cooked. Like cream in a cram puff. (EA) That gives me some interesting imagery. I just couldn't pass it up.
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#73729 - 07/22/02 12:16 PM Re: doughnut, donut
of troy Carpal Tunnel Registered: 10/17/00 Posts: 5400 Loc: rego park	i think i have read that the nut of donuts is from knot or knob, as in a dough knot.. and yes, the hole in the doughnut is to make it cook more evenly.. it's is less of problem with raised (yeast based dough) donuts -- and jelly filled ones are almost always of this kind, but more of problem with "cake-like" or soda leavened dough nuts -- these tend to be heavier, and can be leaden.. the very opposite of KK's (Krispy Creme's for non-USers-- a brand of very light, raised donuts) FF, didn't some of this come up when we discussed Tim Hortons? have you searched for Hortons? or Tim bits? i think it was in a sports thread of all places, and it wasn't me who brought it round to food! _________________________ my other obsession
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#73730 - 07/22/02 12:25 PM Re: doughnut, donut
maverick Carpal Tunnel Registered: 09/15/00 Posts: 4757	it wasn't me who brought it round to food! uh~huh? :)
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#73731 - 07/22/02 12:39 PM Re: doughnut, donut
TheFallibleFiend veteran Registered: 01/23/02 Posts: 1523 Loc: Virginia, USA	FF, didn't some of this come up when we discussed Tim Hortons? I don't remember discussing Tim Horton's. Interesting - dough knots. k
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