Raised and Glazed: Don’t Doubt the Doughnut

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2023

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Doughnuts are ubiquitous in the United States: whether you're at party, a coffee shop, or the break room at work, you’re likely to find a box of iced rings covered with sprinkles. But some kind of deep-fried dough blob is a treat found in cultures around the world—so why have doughnuts become uniquely American? And what’s with the name, when there’s rarely a nut found in this dough? This episode, we're taking a roll around the story of these sweet circles, from their debut in Dutch New Amsterdam to the momentous origins of the doughnut hole. Listen in now, as we meet the Salvation Army volunteers who cemented the doughnut's popularity on the battlefields of both world wars, the Massachusetts middle-school dropout who created a doughnut empire, and the Cambodian-American Donut King of California. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	So we have dental holes that are glazed, and then we have the chocolate rays, chocolate
0:08.9	coconut rays, raised crumb, raised sugar, raised glazed, and then we have our old fashioned
0:15.9	and that comes in a maple flavored or chocolate flavored, glazed flavored and plain.
0:21.2	Then we've also got the honey wheat, cinnamon sugar cake, chocolate cake, and then above
0:27.2	that showcases the tray with the Oreo raised and the uh, raised sprinkles.
0:32.2	This is a lot of donuts. Oh, did I forget the jelly donuts? Yes, jelly, raspberry jelly.
0:38.0	We do that in raspberry strawberry. And this wasn't even all the donuts on offer that morning
0:42.6	when Nikki and I visited colonial donuts in Oakland, California. As Nikki said, they
0:47.0	make a lot of donuts. Oh my God, I feel like a kid in a candy. You're a kid in a donut
0:53.8	shop is what you are. This entire episode we are kids in a donut shop. We're also gastropod
1:00.2	the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and history. I'm Nikola Twilly
1:04.0	and I'm Cynthia Graber. And in case you've gotten lost dreaming about chocolate glaze, this
1:08.2	episode is of course about donuts. What are donuts? And why doesn't the dough come with
1:13.4	nuts? How did the donut get its whole? Who first punched that one out? And more importantly,
1:20.0	which bright spark figured out how to sell the holes as well as the donuts? This episode
1:24.6	we answer all those pressing questions. Plus, we have the story of the rise of Duncan and
1:29.3	the donut king of California who held the Duncan invasion at bay. Gastropod is part
1:33.9	of the Vox Media podcast network in partnership with eater.
1:39.7	This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. The lights are out. It's time to sleep. You close
1:44.0	your eyes. But then your mind starts going a mile a minute stressing about everything.
1:49.2	Getting thoughts can get in the way of you living life. And with BetterHelp, you can
1:52.8	find a therapist who can help you break negative thought cycles and find some peace in your
	...

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