The Doughnut Democracy
A brief history of doughnuts and the man who made a fortune out of doughnuts
Everyone knows about Henry Ford, the man who churned out cars like crazy with the revolutionary factory model called the ‘Assembly Line’. Model T, that was the name of the automobile model, was produced in mass quantities, and eventually made Mr.Ford a rich businessman. From 1913 to 1927, Ford produced over 15,000,000 Model T automobiles!
There is a man who revolutionised the Doughnut Industry like how Mr.Ford revolutionised the automobile industry, we will get to about him in a while.
Doughnuts are quintessentially American, at least now they are. But the history of doughnuts is an often debated one among the historians, something they like to debate over a coffee while dunking their doughnuts on them.
Though Doughnuts have a convoluted past, the proper ‘Doughnuts’ are believed to have arrived first at Manhattan and went by the name Olykoeks, which translated into ‘Oily Cakes’.
Yes, I know what you are thinking, not an attractive name! But boy, did it stop a revolution? Hell no! Doughnuts made it big in the US, transformed themselves into a truly quintessential American image. The most important part of it is that it is Democratic- almost everyone can afford a Doughnut and is also a quick breakfast fix.
Doughnut: Nuts in the Centre of the Dough
In the mid-19th century, Elizabeth Gregory experimented with a dessert made of nutmeg and cinnamon and put hazelnuts or walnuts in the centre where the dough might not cook properly, and called them ‘Doughnuts’ in the most literal sense! She started making this for her son who was a New England Ship Captain so that he could have it during his voyages and the ingredients of the snack will ward off colds and scurvy. The son would later claim the credits for putting the hole on the doughnuts, but the doughnut historians are divided on why he put a hole on the doughnuts: some believe that it was for easy digestion, while the craziest ones believe that it was for hanging the doughnut on one of the spokes, while he had his both hands on the wheel of the ship.
The Wonderful Almost Human Automatic Donut Machine
If we are to go to the proper history of doughnuts, we will need a series for that. So I will skip that part to introduce the man who made a fortune out of doughnuts. Adolph Levitt was basically the ‘Henry Ford’ of the doughnut industry.
Adolph Levitt, a Jewish refugee from czarist Russia started selling fried doughnuts from his bakery, which immediately became a sensation among the theatre crowd. Eventually, to meet the growing demand and to mitigate the complaints about fumes, he was forced to think about inventing a ‘magic’ machine that churned out doughnuts like crazy and he did! Thus in 1920, Adolph invented the first doughnut-making equipment in the world, which will change his life and the entire Americans’ lives forever.
Within a few years, Adolph’s machines were earning him $25 million a year! He earned most of this money by wholesaling doughnuts to the bakeries around the country.
Adolph’s machine was called ‘The Wonderful Almost Human Automatic Donut Machine’. Though he is widely being credited with the invention of the first doughnut machine, there are other claims that several others were also using such machines even before him. Nevertheless, America owes it to him for making doughnuts more economical through its mass production.
Endnote:
There is still a battle being fought regarding the actual spelling, ‘Doughnut’ or ‘Donut’. But regardless of whether you belong to #TeamDougnut or #TeamDonut, let’s take a moment and appreciate one of the greatest gifts the immigrants had to offer to America. It is difficult to find something else that is as quintessentially American as the doughnuts are.
America celebrates National Doughnut Day on 5th June