In the trenches of World War I, Salvation Army volunteers Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance fried doughnuts for American soldiers, and the Salvation Army created National Donut Day in 1938 to honor that work. This episode follows fried dough from Cato the Elder’s Roman globi to a 13th century Arabic recipe for sfenj, in which a ring of dough was fried first to test whether the yeast was ready. It continues with Dutch oliekoeken in New Amsterdam, Washington Irving’s 1809 mention of doughnuts, and the disputed Hanson Gregory story, including his mother Elizabeth’s habit of putting nuts in the center.

We cover the 1870 doughnut cutter, the 1920s Display Doughnut Machine Corporation push for the simpler spelling donut, and Dunkin’ Donuts taking the name in 1950. We also compare the chemistry of cake and yeast doughnuts, and tour global versions like Japanese mochi doughnuts, Indian vada, Hanukkah sufganiyot, German Berliners and Polish paczki, ending with Dunkin’ shops kept open for first responders during the Boston lockdown.

• Ancient origins of fried dough, from Roman globi to Arabic sfenj
• The Hanson Gregory legend and what historians actually support
• How 1920s marketing turned doughnut into donut
• Frying temperatures and oil absorption in cake versus yeast doughnuts
• Global fried dough traditions, from mochi doughnuts to paczki