Happy National Doughnut Day

National Doughnut Day is celebrated on the first Friday of June each year. (Doughnut is the dictionary spelling, but donut is becoming more acceptable each year.)

National Doughnut Day started on June 7, 1938 when a young military doctor by the name of Morgan Pett was sent to a military base. On his way there he stopped at a bakery and picked up eight dozen doughnuts. When he arrived at the base he started helping many wounded soldiers, and would give them a free doughnut. One man he helped was a Lieutenant General by the name of Samuel Geary. Samuel Geary decided to make a fund raiser with Morgan Pett to give every wounded soldier, and the needy a doughnut. This fund raiser was later joined with the Salvation Army. Many donut shops still give out free donuts on this day.

In honor of the day Krispy Kreme, with no purchase necessary, will hand out a free donut of choice to each customer.

Dunkin Donuts (which began the new spelling) will give out one free donut with the purchase of any beverage.

Incidentally, International Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day is widely recognized as June 8.

Wordology, Donut and Doughnut

This issue has plagued food writers for decades, especially because there is one dictionary-approved spelling and one that is used by a popular chain. A doughnut gets its name because it is a combination of the words dough and nut. It is literally a nut (ball) of dough

The shortened donut spelling came into popular usage about 1900 and is used mostly in the US, but gaining popularity around the English speaking world. Writers outside the US still favor doughnut. Donut appears about a third of the time in published US writing.

Think of donut as a cousin of the words lite and tonite. They are supposed to be spelled light and tonight, but marketers and advertisers choose otherwise.

Friday Thought

Happy National Doughnut Day

Every first Friday in June, doughnut (donut) lovers all rise to celebrate a wonderful circle of sweet, doughy goodness that has a day set aside for holey honor. The day was created by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the men and women who served doughnuts to soldiers during World War I. A military doctor, Morgan Pett was sent to a military base and, on his way he stopped at a bakery and picked up 8 dozen doughnuts to give to the wounded soldiers. During  the Second World War, Red Cross Volunteers also distributed doughnuts.

Three more less well known doughnut holidays are International Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day, June 8; National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day, September 14; and Buy A Doughnut Day, October 30.

Stop by your favorite donut shop today as many American doughnut stores offer free doughnuts on National Doughnut Day.

Donut Bacon Burger Breakfast

This is a great twist on an old idea. Southern Californian burger chain Slater’s 50/50 now offers a Donut Burger on its weekend breakfast menu during regular season football.

It consists of two glazed donuts which sandwich their 50/50 half bacon, half beef burger with a sunny side up egg and cheese. It comes with a side of strawberry jelly. Mmmm.

Doughnut Crumbs

No one really knows when donuts were invented or who invented them. One theory suggests they were introduced into North America by Dutch settlers, who were responsible for popularizing other American desserts, including cookies, cream pie, and cobbler. Another theory is the English brought the recipes over when they settled in the US.


Doughnut is the more traditional spelling, and still dominates outside the US. Doughnut and the shortened form donut are both pervasive in American English.


Donuts were originally made as a long twist of dough. It was also common in England for doughnuts to be made in a ball shape and injected with jam after they were cooked. Both methods of cooking involved no human intervention as the balls and twists turn over when the underside is cooked.


Hansen Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring donut 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 tin pepper box. Excuse me, I feel the need to graze on a glazed.
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