The donut arrived in New Amsterdam – today New York – under the Dutch name olykoek , which means 'oily cake'. It was the seventeenth century and it still had no hole. In the mid-1800s, Elizabeth Gregory, mother of the captain of a spice ship, used the cinnamon and nutmeg provided by her son , as well as lemon peel, to create a deep-fried bun that she placed in the middle. –The part that was not cooked yet– walnuts and hazelnuts. Thus it withstood long journeys without breaking down, hence its name: dough means 'dough', and nut , 'dried fruit' or 'nut'.
According to the popular version, in 1847, Mrs. Gregory's scion, Hanson, put the hole in the donut by nailing it into one of the spokes of the rudder of his ship during a storm, since he needed to use both hands. In a later interview, the sailor explained that he had created the first donut "by sinking a pepper shaker in its center," which solved the problem of undercooking at that point. This sweet became popular in the First World War , when American women moved to the front to prepare it for the soldiers of their country, which were called doughboys . Back home they wanted more and thus a whole industry emerged.
