Why A Ship Captain From Maine Is Credited With Putting The Holes In Donuts

Among the foods which famously bear holes, such as bagels, Cheerios, and Swiss cheese (where the size of the holes does matter), there is arguably none more beloved than the donut. The basic concept of the donut (that is, deep fried cakes made of yeasted dough) dates back to Medieval Europe, but the treat really didn't resemble what we know as donuts today. Experts agree that it wasn't until the mid-19th century that holes in the middle of donuts became the norm, thanks to a New England seafarer named Captain Hanson Gregory.

Captain Gregory was somewhat of a donut aficionado, mainly due to the fact that his mother made and supplied him and his crew with tasty fried pastries for their lengthy journeys at sea. His crew made fried donuts, as well, but the Captain noticed that the puffy, square-shaped treats (as they were commonly shaped during this time) regularly came out of the oil cooked around the edges and raw in the middle. His mother had combatted this dilemma by placing nuts in the centers of her donuts. Onboard, Gregory took the top of a tin pepper box and punched out the center part of the dough, creating perfectly cooked donuts with a peephole in the middle.

He eventually hired a tinsmith to make a custom donut hole-puncher and introduced his mother to the concept. She, in turn, introduced the holed donuts to her town and surrounding communities, and donuts became forever changed.

In 1916, the "Washington Post" interviewed Captain Gregory, aged 85 at this time, about his contribution to the food world. He recalled, "We used to cut the doughnuts into diamond shapes, and also into long strips, bent in half, and then twisted ... They used to fry all right around the edges, but when you had the edges done the insides was all raw dough ... The twisters used to sop up all the grease where they bent, and they were tough on the digestion" (New England Historical Society).

Written accounts appear to corroborate Gregory's story; there are printed recipes from 1828, 1847, and 1849 with instructions to cut individual donuts into diamond, square, or circle shapes. In 1877 and after, donut recipes began specifying the sweet in ring shapes with a hole in them. The timing fits with Captain Gregory and his claim. There is no mention of what the Captain did with the donut dough punch outs, though — perhaps they were put to use like McDonald's pull apart donuts that looked like seven donut holes held together with glaze.