The internet is full of fabulous facts about everything from current events to the history basket weaving. Because of this, as we research for our daily content on food trucks, food carts and street food, we stumble upon some items of knowledge that we just did not know. We have decided when these fun facts pop up, that we would share them with our readers in our section titled “Did You Know?”

For today’s Did You Know fun food facts we will look at Doughnuts.

The Facts: While no one really knows when donuts were invented or who invented them. Doughnuts were originally made as a long twist of dough – not in the ring form that is most common these days. It was also common in England for donuts to be made in a ball shape and injected with Jam after they were cooked – this is still very common. Both methods of cooking involve no human intervention as the ball and twist will turn itself over when the underside is cooked. The ring donut common to America just seemed to appear – but one Hansen Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented it in 1847 when he was traveling on a steam boat; he was not satisfied with the texture of the center of the donut so he pressed a hole in the center with the ship’s pepper box.

• Doughnut vs. Donut? There has been much debate among experts as to whether “doughnut” or “donut” is the proper spelling. “Doughnut” is actually proper, but “donut” is acceptable. If you look in older dictionaries, you’ll only find “doughnut.” However, the Merriam-Webster dictionary now lists “donut” as a variant of “doughnut.” Either way you spell it, they’re still delicious!
• January 12th is National Glazed Doughnut Day.
• The first Friday in June is designated as National Doughnut Day.
• National Donut Day was officially established in 1938 by the Chicago Salvation Army to raise much-needed funds during the Great Depression.
• In the U.S. alone, more than 10 billion donuts are made every year.
• The largest donut ever made was an American-style jelly donut weighing 1.7 tons, which was 16 feet in diameter and 16 inches high in the center.
• Per capita, Canada has more donut shops than any other country.
• Adolph Levitt invented the first donut machine in 1920.
• The US donut industry is worth 3.6 billion dollars.
• The Guinness World record for donut eating is held by John Haight, who consumed 29 donuts in just over 6 minutes.

Related posts:

1. DYK: Pancakes
2. DYK: Coffee
3. DYK: Bagels
4. DYK: White Chocolate
5. DYK: Fritters