DOUGHNUT ARTIST

Greymouth Evening Star, 25 June 1937, Page 13

DOUGHNUT ARTIST

MERIT WHERE IT IS DUE. The late Captain Hanson Gregory, of Camden. Maine, has been nominated for the Hall of Fame by the national doughnut committee. The citation declares that Captain Gregory, who died fourteen years ago. "not only discovered the hole in the first place, but invented the proper process for enclosing the hole in the doughnut."

Captain Gregory went to sea as a cabin boy, became "cook and hand," then second mate at. 19. mate at 21, apd a master mariner at 25, sailing in all rigs and sizes from a lime coaster to a full-rigged ship. It was while he was a sea cook that he “invented” the hole in the doughnut. Ancient mariners and old settlers recall the time, down to the Civil War and later, when a doughnut was just a square chunk of dough fried in fat. For the most part, doughnuts were soggy, greasy, and almost indigestible. Naturally sea-going folk called them "sinkers. ’’ Gregory was a cook with progressive ideas, and when sarcastic remarks were made about his doughnuts he devised improvements. First, instead of cutting the dough into square pieces, lie cut it into discs with a calm cutter. Then lie put in more “shortening” and puffed the mass up with balling powder or yeast “rising.’’ He waited until his fat was sizzling hot before hi* began trying—but even then his’doughnuts seemed a. bit too heavy. Thinking it. over, a bright idea struck Cook Gregory: — “Why so much dough in one lump?" Ho got a tinsmith to make an implement. that cut the dough into rings, leaving the famous hole in the middle. “Lite preservers," the sailors called I hem. That process vastly improved (he doughnut, and soon cooks everywhere ha<l adopted it.