Talk:Doughnut

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[edit] History

The history section is wholly inadequate. It would be similar to summarizing the history of the wheel from an American perspective as: The wheel was introduced to the Americas by European settlers. E.G. I have seen street vendors making fresh doughnuts in Bristol England, in 1995. These persons were British. So if the doughnut was introduced to the US via the Dutch, how did it get to England, or Australia? Are we to assume it was also via the Dutch or via the then British colonies? Or is the introduction more recent? If the term doughnut is fairly new, what, if anything was the treat called before that? Could someone answer how and about when did the Dutch come up with their doughnut, or link to an article on it? Was it purely brought to New York by the Dutch, or did the Dutch concept and the French beniet meld somewhere between NYC and New Orleans? Also, I've seen a painting in the Smithsonian art collection which seemed to depict doughnut like treats painted in the early 1600s http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?45891+0+0+gg30 http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/pimage?45891+0+7+gg30 I wondered if doughnuts were even that old; this article would not help anyone pursue this line of thinking. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dlamblin (talk • contribs) 21:13, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Health aspects

Why does not there exist description of nutritional value/calories and health effects of dufnut consumption? Imho, it would be great extenstion to the article to add such info.


[edit] Donut = dough nought

Why is it not mentioned on this page that 'donut' and 'doughnut' are both contractions of 'dough nought'? That is the actual origin of the name.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.211.144.95 (talk • contribs)

If you have a reference for that, feel free to add it yourself. — Feezo (Talk) 22:40, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
Ehrm. No. We don't know if it comes from "nought". It could perfectly come from "nut" (as in the hardware, not the fruit). As far as we know it's just as likely, since there is know official ethymology for the word. --eduo 17:57, 4 May 2007 (UTC)

It is also possible that the etymology is dough-naught (dough-circle). This could be easily conjoined with the concept of tradespeople traveling by cart/wagon with fried dough in the shape of a zero in order to be held in place by a peg. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.100.161.53 (talk) 00:25, 24 January 2008 (UTC)


The preceding are all unfounded speculation. I don't know what Eduo wants as an "official etymology", but the Oxford English Dictionary Online has citations from as early as 1809. None of these 19c cites refer to a toroidal shape or a hole (emphasis added in cites). See also the history section.

  • 1809 W. IRVING Knickerb. (1861) 90 An enormous dish of balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughnuts, or olykoeks.
  • 1847 THOREAU in Atlantic Monthly June (1892) 757 The window was..the size of an oblong doughnut, and about as opaque.
  • 1861 R. F. BURTON City of Saints 104 note, The Dough-nut is properly speaking, a small roundish cake made of flour, eggs, and sugar, moistened with milk and boiled in lard.
  • 1870 HAZLITT Brand's Pop. Antiq. I. 48 At Baldock, Herts, the children call..[Shrove Tuesday] Dough-nut Day, from the small cakes fried in brass skillets over the fire with hog's lard.

The Wilder quote is further evidence that the modern American ring shape was not the original form. "Dough-naught" or "dough-nought" is evidently no more than a folk etymology based on the "new-fangled" shape. Thnidu (talk) 22:43, 12 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Useless trivia

Donut is the code-name for a cutting-edge RPG in development by the designers of Burning Wheel and InSpectres.

I don't see how this adds anything to the description of Doughnuts in America. Can it be removed? Pnevares 22:50, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] But the Smosh Men say....

There appears to have been a lot of vandalism on this page today, and it may have a lot to do with a reference to Wikipedia in the newest Smosh video... Namely, they identify doughnuts as having been used as window cleaning instruments... To be honest, I'm surprised more people haven't vandalized the page so far. Is a semi-protect in order? — Jpatch 21:50, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

Wondered what was going on. Yes, I think it needs protected. ---VMS Mosaic 22:26, 29 May 2007 (UTC)
In fact, is it even necessary that the current reference to the video be made? I don't really think it qualifies as encyclopedic content. — Jpatch 01:24, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
Crap, I was just about to vandalize Wikipedia saying that before donuts were made for being eaten, they were used to clean windows. Dam, the video just came out like 6-8 hours ago and this page is protected? Ugh... --72.66.12.217 02:16, 30 May 2007 (UTC)
Oh, so that's what set this off. Didn't realize it was one of those silly internet memes. I guess this category should be emptied and deleted then? — Feezo (Talk) 03:11, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Maybe on the doughnut section we could add a part that says something like:

MisUsed Content:

Smosh says used for window cleaning. Something like that.

[edit] Temperature

The present use of "degrees Fahrenheit" and "degrees Celcius" is to be avoided. All temperatures should be consistently given as "xx °C (yy °F)".
— DIV (149.135.105.55 07:20, 3 August 2007 (UTC))

[edit] Haha, expected

I expected the whole Smosh Food Battle 2007 thing to spark vandalism on this page. No offense to the "intelligent" -snort- people on Wiki, but that's just freakin' hilarious. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.94.243.184 (talk) 01:27, August 28, 2007 (UTC)

[edit] German Variant: 'Auszonge'

My mum bakes a not mentioned variant: they are torus shaped as those which are usually referred to as the original American ones except that the inner hole remains filled with a thin skin of dough. When baked in liquid fat it bubbles up from hot air and thereby makes an excellent view aside from the excellent taste. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.150.106.217 (talk) 15:56, 8 October 2007 (UTC)

The proper (Bavarian) spelling is "Auszogne" (i.e. you swapped n<->g). High German spelling is "Ausgezogene". See http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auszogne - Matthias 88.217.68.103 13:10, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

From the description, this seems to be rather similar to the ostensibly Hungarian Lángos. Any comments? Jimjamjak (talk) 12:46, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] liquid dough -> batter

I suggest replacing the words "liquid dough" with the Wikilink batter. (Note: The batter page lists doughnuts as one product created from batter.) This suggestion may sound trivial to native speakers but for non-native speakers (who usually don't learn that kind of vocabulary in school) links like this offer an important way to broaden their language horizon. - Matthias 88.217.68.103 13:10, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

Given that there's no such thing as "liquid dough," I think your suggestion is warranted. Fwiw, though, donuts can be made from batter (cake donuts) or dough (regular ring ones and filled ones). The differences between batter and dough are in the leavening (chemical or physical vs biological), development (creaming vs kneading), and grade of flour (low vs high gluten). HTH, Jim_Lockhart (talk) 12:42, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Pastry

Would it be wrong to say that doughnuts are a[n American?] pastry? Hierarchically, I always thought of the doughnut ranking as something of a peer of the eclair, both offshoots of the pastry branch of the food tree. Despite the fact that doughnuts are so common in the US, this article seems to over-generalize the word doughnut, to the point where pastries of other cultures around the world are all but described as some international form of the doughnut (see also, List of doughnut varieties). While the comparisons might have some currency (they are often sold in the same sorts of places), it seems like much of this content would be more properly included under the pastry article with a link to the doughnut article as needed. I also noted that there were no pastry wikilinks in this article, however much the word is mentioned. That said, I don't have anything against doughnuts. Custard / cream-filled remain among my favorites. -Onceler 21:11, 3 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Scottish and Northern Irish regional variations

I think a "citation needed" should go on the Scottish and Northern Irish variations. I'm not native to either, but I've never heard of either of the described variations. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.6.215.47 (talk) 17:51, 12 November 2007 (UTC)

I can confirm the Scottish one at least. Strangely enough, I heard this usage for the first time yesterday during a conversation with my mother - and I'm Scottish. Perhaps it's going out of common usage these days? Or it might just be that I never really had a lot of doughnuts... Come to think of it, 99% of the doughnuts I've ever eaten in Scotland were jam doughnuts.

In any case, it seems that, yes, some people in Scotland refer to the ring-shaped doughnuts as dough rings. Thorf (talk) 12:59, 16 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm not Scottish but I live in Aberdeen. Dough ring is definitely the norm among the natives here for the ones with holes. It's a shame I don't know an obvious citation, so that I can back it up. Moreover, some people seem very surprised to hear that anyone would refer to them as 'dough nuts' rather than 'dough rings', the reason given being that they are obviously shaped like rings and not like nuts - that is, I suppose, not like hazelnuts. I reply that they are very definitely shaped like the metal nuts that screw onto bolts! Poglad (talk) 16:59, 29 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] no mentino of pudding filled?

that just aint right,you all know damn well pudding is the #1 filling for doughnuts,choclate icing,choclate puuuuudding,dont believe me just ask me. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.46.49.98 (talk) 21:34, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] No mention of its association with Cops

Cops and doughnuts go together. I believe we need atleast some mention of this along with references in popular culture. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.200.143.97 (talk) 17:36, 17 March 2008 (UTC)

Actually, I also just came here to find references to the present and historical cultural association of Donuts and police. Jup, right. The phenomen is widespread enough to warrant mentioning in the article, perhaps in a section "cultural references". Do cops actually hang out in Donut shops? Why? Why not? Why does everybody know or believe that this is the case? Where did the custom or the belief originate? What was first, the cop or the Donut? Did ever get a Donut shop built at a certain location because of a former aggregation of polimen there? What abot policewomen? Act Domuts as a supressor to police work, or so they improve it, at the cost of the health of police workers? Or are Donuts healthy? Or does it depend? On what does it depend? Are there Donut shops in Bielefeld? Are all captives in Bielefeld fed with the same Donuts, or do Elvis and JFK receive special Donuts? Has the Donut shape something to do with UFOs? Opps. I should stop asking such question, or the FBI will come and answer them...anfter getting me to Bielefeld... --80.134.9.41 (talk) 14:44, 9 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Russian/Ukrainian variant

I've had fried pies very much akin to doughnuts in both places, stuffed with fermented cabbage that has been mixed with apple and sweetened. I can't pretend to know their name, however. Jimjamjak (talk) 12:43, 5 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Arab Donut Holes

From Egypt south to Sudan, fried balls soaked in syrup are a common street snack, often eaten in winter. These are called ligamaat (from the Greek) and zelabia. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.135.38.102 (talk) 12:05, 6 June 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Netherlands

The part about the netherlands is incorrect. The belgian description of Powdered sugar and no fruit applies to the netherlands. (except in some cases when there's raisins). the providided description is not for Oliebollen,but for Appelbollen.86.87.28.191 (talk) 18:59, 12 June 2008 (UTC)