Why did the donut go to the dentist? To get a filling!
Humans have been snacking on fried dough since ancient times. According to Britannica Library, the modern donut can be traced to 17th century New York, then called New Netherland. Dutch immigrants made fried dough balls stuffed with fruits and nuts: olie koeken or olykoeks, which means “oil cakes.”
An American ship captain named Hanson Gregory is said to be the person who gave the donut its iconic shape around 1850. Why did he poke a hole through the donut, though? One story goes that he needed to keep both hands on the ship's wheel during a storm. So he skewered a donut on a spoke of the wheel for easier snacking. Take this story with a grain of salt! Or powdered sugar... or sprinkles…
Captain Gregory later said that he used the top of a round tin pepper box to cut into the donuts. He came up with the idea before he was a captain, when he was a cook's assistant. He thought the hole would make the deep-fried dough less tough to digest. Smithsonian Magazine reported that the captain's mom, Elizabeth Gregory, also made delicious treats. She used spices like cinnamon and nutmeg, along with lemon rind and nuts. Yum!
In any case, the hole was an a-glaze-ing innovation. Now donuts could be bigger and cooked thoroughly without risking a doughy middle. Sweet!