National Doughnut Day / National Love Your Red Hair Day

Any redheads on our Forum? Only 2% of the population have red hair. Any red heads on our forum who love donuts? What's your favorite donut?

NATIONAL DOUGHNUT DAY 

National Doughnut Day on November 5th is one of two observed by doughnut lovers across the nation. The first Friday in June is the other day doughnuts steal the bakery case spotlight ready to tease their way into white bakery box home!

History disputes the origin of the doughnut. One theory suggests Dutch settlers brought doughnuts to North America much like they brought other traditional American desserts. They receive credit for such desserts as the apple pie, cream pie, and cobbler. 

Doughnuts come in many shapes. Was the original doughnut round? If so, American, Hanson Gregory laid claim to inventing the ring-shaped doughnut in 1847. He was on-board a lime-trading ship. Only 16 at the time, Gregory claims he punched a hole in the center of dough with the ship’s tin pepper box. Later, he taught the technique to his mother.

Traveling further back in time, we look at an English cookbook. According to anthropologist Paul R. Mullins, an 1803 volume included doughnuts in the appendix of American recipes. However, the earliest recorded usage of the term doughnut is found in a short story in a Boston Times article about “fire-cakes and dough-nuts” published in 1808. 

A more commonly cited first written recording of the word is Washington Irving’s reference to doughnuts in 1809 in his History of New York. He described balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat. The author called them doughnuts. Today, these nuts of fried dough are called doughnut holes.

Another author, William Cullen Bryant describes doughnuts fried in lard in his book Picturesque America; Or, the Land We Live In which was published in 1872.

Donut versus Doughnut

·        Print ads for cake and glazed donuts and doughnuts existed from at least 1896 in the United States.

·        George W. Peck published Peck’s Bad Boy and his Pa in 1900. It contained the first known printed use of donut. In it, a character is quoted as saying, “Pa said he guessed he hadn’t got much appetite and he would just drink a cup of coffee and eat a donut.”

·        In 1919, the Square Donut Company of America was founded. Square donuts offer an easier to package product.

The more traditional spelling is doughnut. However, both doughnut and donut are pervasive in American English.

Doughnuts come in a large variety of recipes, flavors, and toppings. However, just like many pastries, we are only limited by imagination and ingredients at hand. From syrups and jellies to sprinkles and custards, top them, fill them, bake them or fry them. Doughnuts have a mouth-watering way of glazing and dusting their way into our shopping carts. They also slip into the break room at work to share. 

 NATIONAL LOVE YOUR RED HAIR DAY.

 National Love Your Red Hair Day celebrates the beauty of those gorgeous red tresses annually on November 5th. There’s no reason to be shy. Redheads get the spotlight to show of the unique qualities of red hair. 

Many redheads feel like outcasts for having red hair. This celebration empowers redheads to feel confident, look amazing, and rock their beauty. Red hair is more than a color; it’s a lifestyle. Besides, redheads are rare. Less than 2 percent of the population are crowned with red hair. And those that are may very well be left-handed, too. 

·        Lucille Ball

·        Queen Elizabeth I

·        Ron Howard

·        Vincent van Gogh

·        Rupert Grint

·        Carol Burnett\

·        Bonnie Raitt

·        Wynonna Judd

·        Carrot Top

Most natural-born redheads (yes, some of us like the bottle) have brown eyes, followed by green or hazel. Coming in at 1% of the world’s population, the blue-eyed ginger is the rarest kind. 

And redheads do stand out in a crowd. So, each unique and impressively stunning redhead gets to show off their locks.