Why do donuts have “nut” in the name?
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From the brains behind brains on, this is the Moment of Um. Moment of Um comes to you from APM Studios. I'm Midge, the pigeon. Um...

As a savvy city pigeon, I've had the pleasure of sampling many, many delicious street foods. I've pecked at a pastrami stuck to the pavement. I've nibbled on noodles. I've even tasted tamales from a takeout counter once when no one was looking. But in this humble pigeon's opinion, the hottest spot in the city is the dumpster behind the donut shop.

So many delectable donuts to try. Why, just yesterday, I had a strawberry frosted cake donut, a glazed cruller, a powdered sugar twist, and to top it all off, my personal favorite, a rainbow sprinkle donut. But, uh, keep it on the DL, okay? I don't want every pigeon in town knowing about my super secret day old donut spot. You know, I've always wondered something. Why are they called donuts?

Not all of them have nuts in them. Why not call them dough circles or dough yums because they're yummy. You get it? My friend Sophia sent in a question about this, too. Unfortunately, no one knows for sure why doughnuts has the word nut in it. My name is Sarah Lohman and I am a food historian.

I study the history of the foods we eat to better understand everyday people, both in the modern age and in the past. To have donuts, we have to have the technology to create donuts, which means that you have to have vessels that you can fry things in, and you have to have access to some type of oil. Historians believe that we first started frying in the Bronze Age, so we're looking at about

5,000 to 3,000 years ago. And that's when, especially in India, you had vessels made from copper and they started deep frying things in ghee. Ghee is a form of butter. And the first things to be fried were versions of donuts. We generally call that fritters. That's any kind of fried dough. And the first printed recipe we have for a fritter appears in a Roman cooking manuscript from the 5th century, so about 1,500 years ago.

One of the fritters in this book was made from milk and wheat flour and was fried in olive oil, and then you dipped it in honey or black pepper. It's probably the Dutch, though, that brought donuts to America. Historically, the Dutch had access to a lot of flour and sugar, which is what you need to make fritters and donuts. So they perfected and created many different baked or fried sweets.

Their word for donuts was "oilycooks," which means "oily cakes," and they looked different from how you imagine donuts today. These were like spoonfuls of dough that were dropped into hot oil, so they were sort of like roundish, and they often had spices in them, and they could be mixed with things like dried fruits, too.

This comes to America because the Dutch colonized the area that is now known as New York in the 17th century. Back then it was called New Amsterdam. And the first time we see the word doughnuts in print was from writer Washington Irving. He was a writer in New York State in the early 19th century, and he often wrote stories about historical Dutch culture in New Amsterdam.

but also that Dutch culture had a really long lasting influence on New York.

He used the word donut in print in 1808. And in another story in 1809, he described a donut as balls of sweetened dough fried in hog's fat called donuts or olikoks. So this seems to be a word that developed in New York, basically in Manhattan, from the meeting of Dutch and English cultures. So why nuts in donuts? Here's my theory.

I think it's from this original shape that donuts got their name. They were blobs of dough dropped in hot oil. And so they were kind of like a nut of dough. So I think that they were comparing the size and the shape of these fritters to a nut. And so then we get donuts. Um, uh,

So it turns out donuts have gone through lots of different versions to become the sweet treat we know and love today. Historians think they first came to be about 5,000 years ago in India when people started frying little blobs of dough. It wasn't until about 400 years ago that the Dutch brought their version of donuts to America. Over time, people started cutting a hole in the middle to help the donuts cook more evenly and better.

The delicious and endlessly delightful donut. Historians aren't sure why donuts have the word nut in the name, but one idea is that they used to be about the same size and shape as a nut. Another idea is that they used to be balls of dough filled with nuts. So, donuts! Okay, if you'll excuse me, I have a sprinkled donut to finish. Do you hear that? It sounds like...

Oh no, get out of here you other pigeons. My donuts. If you liked this episode, take a second to subscribe to Moment of Um wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you love learning how different foods came to be, check out the Forever Ago podcast where we have a whole episode all about the history of chewing gum.

Want to see our shows come to life? Head to YouTube where we've got awesome animated Brains On episodes. Search Brains On Universe on YouTube and subscribe. If you have a question, we'd love to help you answer it. Drop us a line by going to brainson.org slash contact. See you next time and next day and every weekday. Until then, num. ♪

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