The history of the donut

_Elsa_

As soon as Tiffi gets off the phone, she has to get a head start on this so they she goes – Googling!

‘The history of the doughnut goes back centuries, long before the discovery of the New World. In ancient Rome and Greece, cooks would fry strips of pastry dough and coat them with honey or fish sauce (eww!). In Medieval times, Arab cooks started frying up small portions of unsweetened yeast dough, drenching the plain fried blobs in sugary syrup to sweeten them.

These Arab fritters spread into northern Europe in the 1400’s and became popular throughout England, Germany and the Netherlands. In 15th century Germany, where sugar was hard to come by, they were often cooked savory with fillings like meat or mushroom. The Pilgrims and Dutch settlers brought doughnuts to America.

Eventually holes were added to the center of the fritter to create the shape of doughnut we’re familiar with today. This invention came out of necessity. At a certain point, egg yolks were added to the dough –  it was discovered that this produced a richer and firmer end-product. The problem was, the fritters would often end up raw in the center after frying– the exterior would cook before the inner part of the doughnut did. The addition of a hole in the center eliminated that problem.’ (Info here)

Let’s continue to the next message - The Doughnut Girls fry the donuts

Start at the beginning - Hi Dachs (A/K/A the donut dog)