Fried dough has been made all around the world. Dutch settlers who brought apple and cream pies, cookies and cobbler to the New World also introduced doughnuts. Their doughnuts were called olykoeks, or oily cakes – sweet dough balls fried in pork fat. Early doughnuts were often filled with apples, prunes or raisins. The name “doughnut” may refer to the nuts put in the middle of the dough ball to prevent an uncooked center or possibly to “dough knots” – another popular shape for the olykoeks. Today, “doughnut” and “donut” are used interchangeably.
on June 22, 1847, Captain Gregory’s ship hit a sudden storm. He impaled the doughnut as a spoke on the steering wheel to keep his hands free. The spoke drove a hole through the raw center of the doughnut. Captain Gregory liked the doughnuts better that way, and the doughnut hole was born.