Why do donuts have holes

Archaeologists found petrified fried cakes with holes amongst the artifacts of a primitive Indian tribe.

Donuts first appeared in the 16th century as deep fried cakes known as olykoek by Dutch immigrants who then brought it to American soil. Legend has it how the hole-in-centre came to be is credited to a New England sea captain named Mason Crockett Gregory (also known as Hansen Gregory) and his mother Elizabeth, who made olykoeken for her son’s sea voyages. The centres of these donuts tended to not cook through the middle and to conceal this, Elizabeth would stuff nuts in the centre (hence one explanation for the name!).

Apparently, Captain Gregory didn’t like the nuts nor the uncooked centres, and during one of his voyages, the quick-thinking Captain impaled his donuts on one of the spokes of his steering wheel – and voila! The modern-day donuts was born!