How doughnuts were invented

It’s National Doughnut Day — the blessed day when Americans across the country set aside their differences and celebrate the best of sugary, artery-clogging treats.

First celebrated in 1938, the Salvation Army established the holiday in order to raise awareness of their work. So why doughnuts? Eliza Berman over at Time explains that female volunteers “made doughnuts for soldiers serving overseas as a way to boost morale” during World War I.

Doughnuts were again used as morale boosters during World War II, with the Red Cross taking “doughnut lassies” to England, where their doughnuts were so popular that they inspired the slogan “doughnuts will win the war!”

Fast forward to today, and doughnuts have become a part of Americans' national identity. According to USA Today, 60 percent of US households eat doughnuts. And there’s probably a chance that the rest of the world associates them with the US, too. After all, Dunkin’ Donuts boasts more than 3,200 stores in 36 countries, and Krispy Kreme can be found in 24 countries.

La mejor forma de alegrar tu día: pic.twitter.com/iWpFYEie2x

— Krispy Kreme México (@MexKrispyKreme) May 25, 2015

So are doughnuts actually American? The ancestry of today’s maple bacon and original glazed doughnuts is controversial, and like many popular food items, multiple countries claim to have invented it.

Its earliest claimed predecessor, the olykoek, was brought over by Dutch settlers to “New Amsterdam” (what we call Manhattan today).

But the doughnut’s signature hole did not come until the mid-19th century, when a ship captain named Hanson Gregory claimed to have created the snack as we know it today. David Taylor, writing for Smithsonian Magazine, explains how it happened:

Elizabeth Gregory, a New England ship captain's mother who made a wicked deep-fried dough that cleverly used her son's spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon, along with lemon rind. Some say she made it so son Hanson and his crew could store a pastry on long voyages, one that might help ward off scurvy and colds. In any case, Mrs. Gregory put hazelnuts or walnuts in the center, where the dough might not cook through, and in a literal-minded way called them doughnuts.

Gregory then claimed to have created the hole in its center with “the top of a round tin pepper box.”

While Gregory's innovation came in 1847, the Daily Mail claims that its origins are actually British, thanks to a recipe for “dow nuts” found in an English woman’s cookbook that dates back to 1800.

Its origins might be contested territory, but there’s little doubt that Americans have been the ones to perfect the doughnut. The first doughnut machine was rolled out in 1920 in New York City, to keep up with the demands of hungry theatergoers. And if that — or Homer Simpson’s addiction to the treat — doesn’t convince you, here are some of the most delicious doughnuts in the US.