January 20, 2021 • 30 mins
Sufganiyot, pączki, Berliners, bismarcks, or jambusters: Whatever you call 'em, we love jelly doughnuts. Anney and Lauren explore how this treat became a part of holidays around the world.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have a classic episode for you about Jelly Donuts. Yes, because,
as Lauren tells me, because you know time is meaningless,
it's Jelly Donuts season. Yes, yes, we I woke up
(00:30):
recently and and and looked out at the world through
my window and thought, truly, the time of Jelly Donuts
is upon us again. It was just a sense that
overcame you. Yeah. Yeah, I knew I could. I could,
I could feel him out there. You just knew it's
like the forest, but only for Jelly Donuts, right right
(00:50):
or like or like or like the the truth for
Fox Molder. But for Jelly Donuts, it is out there.
It is out there, unlike so Cookie that you was
so strongly opposed. Uh yeah, I was telling Lauren before this.
I recently made my very epic stop to the grocery store.
(01:15):
I think I've got three weeks worth of groceries. But um,
as I was in there, I did realize, Oh, Jelly
Donuts and Marty graz coming and Lunar New Year is
coming in all these bestive food experiences that I love,
but I didn't have the arms space for it because
I am a fool. So I put on my calendar
(01:37):
with a big ASTERIX. Next time I go to make
sure make room put it on my list, because yes,
I though we can't have the same celebrations we would
normally have. I want, I want, yes, absolutely uh And
you know, and you have to. You have to make
the space for jelly donuts in your life that that
(02:00):
you need. That's that's on you. And I'm glad you're
doing that for yourself right now. I'm taking steps. You've
gotta make the space in your life, in your heart,
in your stomach, all three. It's very very important. I'm
excited because I don't think when we did this episode,
I was determined to find some and I don't think
(02:20):
I ever actually followed through. I think I did locate
some jelly donuts, but I don't think I actually purchased them.
I still haven't actually purchased and eaten punch key because
I don't know. Like I I get, I got weird
about about sweets sometimes because my like I, I turned
into such a raving lunatic when I have sugar, And
(02:43):
so I'm like I don't know, Like I'll be in
the grocery store and I'll be like looking at them,
and then I'll be like, Lauren, how do you want
your day to go? Yeah? Yeah, I'm kind of similar.
I don't think I have the similar physical cool reaction,
but I definitely am someone who prefers savory of her sweet.
(03:05):
And it irks my friends so much, like it's one
of the few things normally. She's the one who can
rile me up. She's very good at riling me up.
She's the reason I gave up soda. She dared me.
Uh but she when Quarantine first half in March thirteenth,
she was with me because we were supposed to go
to a concert that night, and she she loves sweet,
(03:28):
so she bought like this um Ben and Jerry's cookie
ice cream. And it was Girl Scout season, which we
did the Girl Scout. Remember we did the Cookies episode
right after that because of her um And she's very
angry at me still because I she left the ice
cream in my refrigerator. I have not eaten it. Uh.
So it's about a year and and she she blames
(03:52):
me for her Girl Scout cookie fiasco where she the
entire case. But that had nothing to do with me. God,
I didn't want it. I mean it was you were
clearly I mean you were clearly not at fault for that.
That was her, that was on her. Yes, I did
laugh at her very riotously, So that perhaps wasn't the
nicest thing I could have done. But I don't think
(04:13):
I am to blame here. But another fun thing in
rerunning this episode is, um, we it gave us an
excuse to look up the Dunker. The Dunker, Yeah, Annie,
if y'all don't know, um, uh it's a prolific illustrator
and um I am yes and uh and and so
(04:36):
we we kind of like developed out this uh, this
this private investigator or I don't know, like like gum
shoe sort of character called the Dunker and he's a
jelly donut and he uh dispenses jelly justice, yes, and
lots of puns. I mean you can imagine the puns.
(04:58):
And there's there's a whole cast of character. You've got
the Big Cheese and you've got Count Dunkila, the Toastmaster
who we mentioned that I've drawn all these out the Saltonator, um,
and you know, the Dunkers really dealing with some intense
emotional issues because it's got a bite out of him. Anyway,
(05:21):
that was a fun trip down memory lane. And hopefully
we'll post this some My art should be enjoyed. It
should be, it should be. That's what it's that's what
it's there for. We would be selfish to hoard it. Um. Yes, yeah,
I'll try to remember to post that on social Oh
my goodness. Um so yeah, I suppose without further ado,
we will let former Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello,
(05:53):
and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren vocal Bum and
I'm Annie Reese. And today, with the winter holidays approach,
we wanted to talk about more holiday food traditions like
the jelly donut. Yeah. Also, Annie might have a mild
donut obsession. You bought twenty four donuts from Voodoo at
midnight on a workship one time, and you've got a
(06:16):
donut obsession. I also like to just bring donuts. Yeah,
but I'm not just talking about the Voodoo donuts. This
is an intervention. It's not it's not. No, it's terrific.
Oh my good that would be great though, in pods intervention. No,
I don't know your love of donuts is fine and
well balanced with the rest of your life choices. Thank you,
(06:39):
but you're very welcome. But okay, so wait a second,
since when our jelly donuts holiday food? I don't know.
I have to admit I I didn't know this until
you you taught me, schooled me. I missed it as
well until just a few years ago. But there are
donuts called satuh singular self yeah, that are this type
(07:01):
of jelly filled, deep fried yeast dough doughnuts served around Hannica,
mostly in Israel. The dough is soft and a little
melty on the inside and a little crisp on the outside,
and they're frequently coated and powdered sugar, served either warm
or room temperature, and they sound good. They do sound good.
They're also very similar to the German pastry the Berliner,
(07:24):
which is eaten on New Year's Eve, and in parts
of Spain and Latin America, bled yellows, which are doughnut
type things that may or may not be filled with
jammer custard, are popular around Christmas. This may also be
where the French New Orleans bignets come from. Oh oh yeah,
and other fried dough desserts do pop up around various
(07:45):
winter holidays, but I'm kind of trying to stick with
filled doughnut fried pastries here, so I don't go totally crazy. Yeah,
but would be remiss if we didn't mention the punch
key of Polish traditions and the fuss nuts of the
Pennsylvania Dutch, though both of those are eaten around fat
or Shrove Tuesday or Thursday, which happens in the late
(08:07):
winter early spring. In all cases, however, these treats are
a symbol of luck for various reasons. I mean, also
just fried things are tasty, yes, and because of our
love of fried things. There are also non holiday versions
of the jelly donut for any day of year. You've
got crop fin in Austria, Bismarck in the American Midwest,
(08:29):
bould de Berlin and France, Fralls in France, Italy's coffin,
and a bunch more, some of which will be discussing
a bit later. My favorite name for one of these
things is Germany's semi erstwhile fast nut cultural chin fast
not cultural chin. Yes, just because of the name. It's
(08:50):
a pretty excellent name. It's all one word in capitalized
because German. Yeah, anyway, go ahead. Obviously there is just
the jelly donut too, And to be clear, we are
talking about the jelly donut. We'll come back to donut. Yeah,
we'll come back to donut one day. This wouldn't be
a food stuff without some kind of weird food record.
(09:12):
So here it is. The largest sufgania was constructed in Jerusalem,
coming in at thirty five pounds, five pounds of which
were jelly. However, I just got creaked out. She did,
She like retreated in on herself. A few years earlier,
in the Guinness Book of World Records listed a jelly
(09:32):
donut made in Utica, New York, as weighing as staggering
one point seven tons. My blood pressure just went up
picturing it. I'm not sure that I'm prepared to deal
with that. Yeah, on like an emotional level, I think
I think I'd pass out I saw it. I don't
(09:53):
know it would be for the best too, because I
don't need to be tackling a one point seven and
jelly donut. Picturing Annie just taking a running leapt into
it and then falling just all the way back. Oh no, okay,
I'm glad I wasn't around for this basically, So let's
(10:15):
talk some history. Yeah, according to a story out of Israel,
the jelly donut was sort of a conciliatory gift God
cave to Adam and Eve after kicking them out of
the garden of because don't we all crave donuts during
difficult times and happy times and all the time. Again,
the point being a jelly donut is pretty well liked.
(10:37):
Whether or not that's an accurate depiction of how humans
got jelly donuts. Yeast raised bread, as we've discussed before,
developed in tandem with beer brewing five thousand years ago
or more. Some of these were surely sweetened bread. Sometimes
the front the dough got fried in oil instead of
being baked. And uh, fruit serves made with honey have
(10:58):
probably been around for about as long. It wouldn't have
been until about the turn of the B C C
E switch over, though, that sugar would have been used,
as that is when the sugarcane refinement process saw development. Meanwhile,
all around the world, people noticed that winter is coming,
or rather what well, I mean they noticed that it
(11:20):
that it came once a year on our planet. I see, Yeah,
you know, the days got shorter, which was probably terrifying
when you weren't sure why that was happening. And furthermore,
everyone had to bundle up and you know, make their
own fun in order to get through the cold months
with their sanity intact. And then when the weather started
lightening up again, you know, that's a pretty good reason
to have another party. Yeah. What I'm saying is that
(11:42):
basically all humans have held rituals and celebrations to stave
off the dark and celebrate life at the beginning and
end of winter basically forever, it makes sense. One European
tradition of particular interest to Jelly Donuts and I love
that sentence so much um is the carn of All,
which is said to date back to ancient Babylonia like
(12:03):
circa twenties six hundred BC. This was a festival that
celebrated mirth and change through satire by making a show
of role reversals. There would be a parade through the streets,
a pair of peasants would be royalty for the day,
and royalty would act like fools. Pranks were played, Folks
would wear costumes depicting social classes other than their own,
(12:24):
and everybody partied These traditions were incorporated into and or
disseminated through Grecian and Roman cultural traditions like the Baccanalia
and Lubercalia and Saturnalia, and then through Christian traditions, especially
Catholic ones during the Middle Ages, maybe like nine d
Bests not bc CE. These traditions became super popular through Europe,
(12:47):
and then colonization brought them to the America's and the
concepts show up modernly and everything from Brazil's Carnival to
New Orleans Marty Gras and the Pennsylvania Duchess fus not.
This is in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I believe,
is it? And I'm just realizing that because I watched
that for the first time since childhood. Recently I watched
(13:07):
the Disney movie I did not read the book. Um. Yeah,
and they have this the Parade of Fools. Is that
what it was? Where they switch? Yeah, it's all making sense,
thank you. Jelly Donut episode who No, I didn't, oh man,
Jelly Donuts um in parts of what's now Germany and
Austria mostly probably Uh. The Carnival is a season that
(13:28):
starts on November eleven at eleven eleven am and runs
all the way through the beginning of Lent in the spring,
with most of the partying done during the last week
as everyone prepares to be all solemn again. Lent, if
you don't know, represents the forty days between the death
and resurrection of Christ and frequently involves fasting being being serious. Um.
Somewhere along the line, fried yeast donuts filled with jelly
(13:51):
became associated with the holiday, perhaps because folks were trying
to use up rich ingredients like large that they wouldn't
be allowed to use during Lent. Yeah. Perhaps, And speaking
of Germany, the country played an important role in the
next step of the jelly donuts history. And we'll talk
about that after a quick break for a word from
(14:12):
our sponsor. And we're back, Thank you sponsor. We're back
with a cookbook. Oh yeah, cookbook quk in my Studi
or Mastery of the Kitchen, published in Nuremberg and translated
(14:35):
into Polish and two became a bedrock cookbook for the
medieval Europe, for the medieval Europe, for medieval Europe and
one of the first printed via Johannes Scuttenberg's fancy new
printing press. Yeah, and it featured a recipe for gave
futa kruppin the first written recipe for a jelly donut,
(14:56):
it was more like a fried jelly sandwich, though it
was two rounds of yea spread with jelly in between
that was then fried and lard. That translation to Polish
thing was crucial to the development of the punch key
and poland, and they were also popular for Christmas and Hanka.
The Yiddish word for this was punch chicks. Oh, I
hope I'm getting that correctly. And of note, the Yiddish
(15:18):
word for the unfilled version was doughnuts um. To get
around the non kosherness of lard, they were often fried
and goose fat oil are schmaltz. Specifically for Hannukah, fried
treats like this are embraced because of the symbolism of oil.
The holiday is the festival of lights, and it celebrates
the story of this miracle in which one night's worth
of lamp oil lasted for eight nights while practitioners rededicated
(15:41):
a temple that had been profaned um. Though whether punch
key were part of Hanukkah traditions or were just like
available around the same time in Poland and therefore people
ate them sometimes is up for debate, since sugar was
quite expensive at the time, most donuts were filled with
savory stuff like meater cheese, so putting in sweet things
(16:02):
it's pretty new and extravagant, which of course meant it
was a treat to be indulged in around holidays until
the sixteenth century, when the price of sugar fell with
the influx of sugar from the Caribbean. Uh jams and
jellies grew in popularity as the price of sugar fell,
and soon pretty much every country in Europe had a
type of jelly donut. They were still fairly difficult to
(16:24):
make and relegated to holidays and special occasions until the
invention of the metal pastry syringe in Germany, which simplified,
cheapified and needified the process of making jelly donuts. Also,
according to legend, Marie Antoinette, who was originally from Austria,
introduced jelly donuts to the French court, where they were
a big hit bear leaners. The term anyway, has been
(16:47):
around since the nineteenth century in Germany, and there's a
story out of seventeen fifty six is detailing the resolve
of a patriotic baker deemed unfit for service in the
Prussian military, but he was out to stay on as
a baker in the field. A baker in the field,
he had to figure out a method of baking without
an oven, however, since evans generally weren't part of a
(17:08):
military's equipment, so he turned to frying things using an
open fire, and the soldier named these things after the
baker's hometown. At first, it was a pretty broad term
that over time it came to me only filled fried donuts,
and I believe that Lauren mentioned earlier jelly donuts were
often associated with Strove Tuesday, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday
(17:30):
in March and April. Around this time as well, that
that association started was existing continue to exist as the
nineteenth century en did. Jelly donuts picked up the name Bismarck's,
allegedly named after Chancellor Otto von bismartin sure sure yeah,
or possibly the similarly shaped German you boat, the Bismarck Man,
(17:54):
or possibly neither of these things. Yeah. With the immigration
of essentially your hands to the American Midwest, parts of
Canada and Boston, you started to get Bismarcks in those areas.
Um they picked up even more names as they spread
to Long John's jam Busters jam Donuts. The term jelly
(18:15):
donuts first popped up in the US around this time, too,
jam Busters I Know, I Love jam Buster. The donuts
also kept the name punch key in several communities of
Polish Jewish immigrants around the globe, including one in Australia.
Polish immigrants in Israel bought with them the tradition of
eating jelly donuts for or around Hanukah, and soon began
(18:38):
calling them sunat, referring to the Talmuds. Swuft gun a
sort of spongy dough, and the root of the words
sponge and sun yat most likely traced back to the
Greek word for spongy suf. There's also a similar word
in Arabic, and also the Hebrew word uh sulf eg
(18:59):
would also means kind of like absorb or sponge um,
all of which probably root from the same word. Probably anyway, Yeah,
Possibly sugiat got their inspiration from deep fried balls of
dough eaten during Hanaka by the Jewish community in Northern Africa.
They had migrated there in the eighteen hundreds and picked
up a sponge that that that spongey fried dough from
(19:22):
the locals. Some Jews Hoopson's migrated away from the area
still eat sponge as a Hanaka delicacy. By the way, apricot, raspberry,
and strawberry are some of the popular fillings for sugiat.
The Israeli Labor Federation the his Studge Roots named sukanyatt
the official food of Hanakah over the latka in the
(19:44):
ninet twenties, and the reason had to do with the
labor involved in making, transporting, and marketing the thing lot
because the other contender were relatively easy to make at home.
It's like a little fried potato pancake, kind of like
a hash brown, like a singular hash brown, a singular hashbrown.
But the sufganiyat Uh, it was kind of difficult, and
most people would rather go to professional baker than take
(20:07):
on that endeavor. I would, I would too, um And
this was, as you may surmise, very successful. In two
thousand and nine, around eighteen million sufganiyat were consumed in
the weeks leading up to and during Hanukkah. During those
eight days, the Israeli Defense Force buys fifty thousand sufganiyata
a day for soldier and morale. Seventy of the sufganiyat
(20:30):
in Israel are jelly filled, but other fillings have become
more common, including the Brazilians preferred filling of Delta de Lache,
which made its way back to Israel. I've also heard
that like anything goes like up to like like for gras,
champagne cream, gold leaf toppings. How extravagant, right, I love it?
(20:51):
I want to I want to fluk out donut mm hmmmm.
In one the Washington Post reported on a crime jelly
donut helped foil more jelly justice, jelly justice excellent bum
bum Okay, So here's the quote. Jelly filled donuts were
(21:13):
the downfall today of a man attempting to rob a
bakery at Pistol Point. First, Mrs Pauline Keller, fifty two
and spry for a grandmother, swung a bag of donuts
and knocked the gun from his hand. Then her screams
brought her husband from a rear room. The bandit turned
to flee, but slipped on a jelly covered dunker and
skidded feet first into a woman customer entering the front door,
(21:35):
he was captured. I feel like that that needed to
have been read in in the Transatlantic accent. That's the
bandit turned to flee, but slipt on a jelly covered
dunker and get a feat first into it. I'll stop now.
We do love the transit like accent in this office.
Pretty lovely it is, anyway. Anyway, Once World War two ended,
(21:56):
a sizeable amount of Polish immigrants settled in Detroit, and
to this day, Pontchky Day is celebrated on Fat Tuesday
in Detroit. Yeah, and now we're going to talk about
fire safety laws. Yeah, aren't you excited? Why aren't you excited?
I'm I am actually very excited about fire safety, aren't
we all? But first, one last break for a word
(22:17):
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you sponsor. Okay, So fire safety laws, here we go.
As we started to implement these in the US, it
(22:38):
precluded a lot of bakeries from being able to make
their own donuts, fryars our whole category. Yeah, pretty dangerous camp.
This led to a spate of specialty donut shops who
could then sell their products not only to customers, but
to other bakeries who couldn't make their own. In Massachusetts
in the nineteen forties, William Rosenberg, the son of immigrants,
(23:00):
worked in industrial catering, and he went around selling snacks
out of the use converted trucks near factories usually, and
he observed that of his sales came from coffee and donuts.
So in ninety eight he opened a donut shop in Quincy, Massachusetts,
America's donut heartland according to what I read, and he
called it Open Kettle. He targeted blue collar workers and
(23:25):
had the ambitious aspiration of offering fifty two doughnut varieties,
one for each week of the year. And two years
later Rosenberg changed the name to Duncan Donuts. Yep, that
Duncan Donuts. Five years later Rosenberg started franchising, buying out
(23:47):
his skeptical business partner slash brother in law, and you
could find one hundred Dunkin Donuts by nineteen sixty three
and one thousand by nineteen seventy nine. England's Allied Lions
bought Duncan Donuts and it's one thousand eight driden fifty
locations in and the aforementioned previous business partner he started
a competing donut shop. I'm sure that their family get
(24:08):
togethers were not intense at all. The first donut franchise
to get Kosher's supervision at some of its branches called
Mr Donut in nineteen fifty six, that Mr Donut, that
Mr Donut, Donut Feud, Donut feud. Five thousand Duncan donuts
were up and running by the time of Rosenberg's death,
(24:30):
and forty of them were Kosher supervised, altogether, boasting two
million customers a day. Yeah, who knew Duncan donuts? And
this episode gave an excuse to look at something I've
always wondered. The spelling. The spelling the correct spelling of donut.
So donut the longer one, um was the original. The
(24:52):
shortened one has existed since the eighteen hundred's, but it
was Duncan Donuts that brought it to the cultural psyche. Yeah,
donut is still the preferred spelling, with donut the long one. Yeah. Oh,
I am acting as if you can see what I
am envisioning in my head. Yes, donut the preferred spelling
is the long one, with the shorter one used only
about one third of the time in American writing, but
(25:15):
I've been using them interchangeably throughout this entire outline. I'm lazy,
so I just say D O, N U, T. Yeah,
But doesn't it It gives you the little red underline
of not spelled correctly. I learned to ignore those a
long time ago. I should take a page out of
Lawrence book or spell things correctly. That's nice too. I'll
(25:37):
think about that later, but for now, let's step back
a bit. Uh. The year is nineteen sixty three. Yes,
JFK delivers a famous speech, the most recognizable line from
which is easily ick bin and Berliner. Now JFK at
a reputation for mincing pronunciations and other languages, and man,
(25:59):
oh yeah, we can relate. Oh yeah, this this episode alone,
I'm sure. I'm sorry, y'all. Yeah, we do our best.
We looked it up, we did, and so did he.
He even wrote out the phonetic pronunciation of Berliner the
same way that we did in this one. And in
the Sour Beer episode he deviated from the speech written
(26:20):
for him in over the Lines he thought it wasn't
tough enough on the Soviets. With the help of his
German interpreter, JFK decided to be more direct at his
point about democracy's role in the global stage and went
with it Ben and Berliner, and over the years after that,
all of these news stories sprang up claiming that what
(26:40):
he said was I am jelly donut and that the
only reason Germans didn't laugh was because the situation was
two tests. However, the area around Berlin didn't really use
the term. They instead used the more fun fankin I
just did a like fun Yes, speaking of fun um,
(27:03):
a spy novel called The Berlin Game written in nineteen
three may have helped give rise to this jelly donut
mishap myth when it mentioned that German cartoonist who went
to town making fun of JFK for the incident, which
they did not know then in The Times ran with
an editorial previously appearing in Newsweek titled I Am jelly
(27:24):
filled doughnut. It's kind of solidified the whole thing. It
was one of the first things that popped up when
I searched jelly donut, and I wasn't sure why, but
now I know, it seems that it's just a myth. Though, yeah,
it's just a yeah, well, I mean, he said, I
mean Berliner does mean jelly donut. And he did say
I am a Berliner, right, but everyone understood. Yeah. And
(27:47):
in Berlin where he was giving the speech, it wasn't
really called that anyway. Yeah, yeah, it was really inspiring speech.
It was. It was like the best proudest thing you
could ever say is to say that I am a Berliner.
We're all Berlin Berliner. Yeah, all jelly donut, You're a
jelly donuts. And I guess when you think about it,
we are. There's so many layers to this. It's filled
(28:09):
with layers. Oh my goodness. The type of things that
were filled with are different than donuts, though, I've heard
that a crop fen in Germany are traditionally filled with
rose hip jam. And I've also heard that sometimes as
a prank, folks will fill a few with mustard and
just mix some men with the regular ones surprise your friends.
Oh man, I really want to do that, And I'm
(28:32):
not sure what it says about me. Oh no, well,
why did I give you this idea? You were the
one that was playing that Bertie Butts terrible Russian Roulette
bean game yesterday, being boozeled. Oh excuse me, being amozzled. Yeah,
that's about what we have to say about jelly donuts. Yes,
like we said, we will come back donuts to other
(28:55):
donuts later. Yeah, yeah, there there was. There was too
much we had to we had to concentrate. Yes, donnut holes.
Oh yes, goodness, it's kind of really good. But if
anyone listening to this around one of the many holidays
or traditions that include jelly filled donut of some type,
I hope that this gives you many facts to annoy
(29:15):
your friends and family with and that you enjoy, enjoy
yourself and enjoy a jelly donut. Man, I've never had
a had a like punch Key before. I'm really really
looking forward to finding them. I'm thinking that we should
do that and then post it on social Oh that's
a great place. Then it's work on research, yes, research,
(29:36):
And that brings us to the end of our classic
episode on jelly donuts. I hope all the jelly donuts
are in your life if you want them, Yeah, just
as many as you want and or need. Yes, yes,
need is a good word. And we would love to
hear about, honestly, any any jelly donuts making experience. Our
(29:59):
t sting experience because I I really don't have much
of my own to draw on, so I'd love to
hear from listeners. Yes, and you can email us. Our
email is Hello at savor pod dot com. Oh, we
are also on social media. You can find us at
savor pod on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, and we
(30:20):
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of
iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, you
can visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to
our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way
Hello, and welcome to Savor production of I Heart Radio.
I'm Annie Reese and I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today we
have a classic episode for you about Jelly Donuts. Yes, because,
as Lauren tells me, because you know time is meaningless,
it's Jelly Donuts season. Yes, yes, we I woke up
(00:30):
recently and and and looked out at the world through
my window and thought, truly, the time of Jelly Donuts
is upon us again. It was just a sense that
overcame you. Yeah. Yeah, I knew I could. I could,
I could feel him out there. You just knew it's
like the forest, but only for Jelly Donuts, right right
(00:50):
or like or like or like the the truth for
Fox Molder. But for Jelly Donuts, it is out there.
It is out there, unlike so Cookie that you was
so strongly opposed. Uh yeah, I was telling Lauren before this.
I recently made my very epic stop to the grocery store.
(01:15):
I think I've got three weeks worth of groceries. But um,
as I was in there, I did realize, Oh, Jelly
Donuts and Marty graz coming and Lunar New Year is
coming in all these bestive food experiences that I love,
but I didn't have the arms space for it because
I am a fool. So I put on my calendar
(01:37):
with a big ASTERIX. Next time I go to make
sure make room put it on my list, because yes,
I though we can't have the same celebrations we would
normally have. I want, I want, yes, absolutely uh And
you know, and you have to. You have to make
the space for jelly donuts in your life that that
(02:00):
you need. That's that's on you. And I'm glad you're
doing that for yourself right now. I'm taking steps. You've
gotta make the space in your life, in your heart,
in your stomach, all three. It's very very important. I'm
excited because I don't think when we did this episode,
I was determined to find some and I don't think
(02:20):
I ever actually followed through. I think I did locate
some jelly donuts, but I don't think I actually purchased them.
I still haven't actually purchased and eaten punch key because
I don't know. Like I I get, I got weird
about about sweets sometimes because my like I, I turned
into such a raving lunatic when I have sugar, And
(02:43):
so I'm like I don't know, Like I'll be in
the grocery store and I'll be like looking at them,
and then I'll be like, Lauren, how do you want
your day to go? Yeah? Yeah, I'm kind of similar.
I don't think I have the similar physical cool reaction,
but I definitely am someone who prefers savory of her sweet.
(03:05):
And it irks my friends so much, like it's one
of the few things normally. She's the one who can
rile me up. She's very good at riling me up.
She's the reason I gave up soda. She dared me.
Uh but she when Quarantine first half in March thirteenth,
she was with me because we were supposed to go
to a concert that night, and she she loves sweet,
(03:28):
so she bought like this um Ben and Jerry's cookie
ice cream. And it was Girl Scout season, which we
did the Girl Scout. Remember we did the Cookies episode
right after that because of her um And she's very
angry at me still because I she left the ice
cream in my refrigerator. I have not eaten it. Uh.
So it's about a year and and she she blames
(03:52):
me for her Girl Scout cookie fiasco where she the
entire case. But that had nothing to do with me. God,
I didn't want it. I mean it was you were
clearly I mean you were clearly not at fault for that.
That was her, that was on her. Yes, I did
laugh at her very riotously, So that perhaps wasn't the
nicest thing I could have done. But I don't think
(04:13):
I am to blame here. But another fun thing in
rerunning this episode is, um, we it gave us an
excuse to look up the Dunker. The Dunker, Yeah, Annie,
if y'all don't know, um, uh it's a prolific illustrator
and um I am yes and uh and and so
(04:36):
we we kind of like developed out this uh, this
this private investigator or I don't know, like like gum
shoe sort of character called the Dunker and he's a
jelly donut and he uh dispenses jelly justice, yes, and
lots of puns. I mean you can imagine the puns.
(04:58):
And there's there's a whole cast of character. You've got
the Big Cheese and you've got Count Dunkila, the Toastmaster
who we mentioned that I've drawn all these out the Saltonator, um,
and you know, the Dunkers really dealing with some intense
emotional issues because it's got a bite out of him. Anyway,
(05:21):
that was a fun trip down memory lane. And hopefully
we'll post this some My art should be enjoyed. It
should be, it should be. That's what it's that's what
it's there for. We would be selfish to hoard it. Um. Yes, yeah,
I'll try to remember to post that on social Oh
my goodness. Um so yeah, I suppose without further ado,
we will let former Annie and Lauren take it away. Hello,
(05:53):
and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren vocal Bum and
I'm Annie Reese. And today, with the winter holidays approach,
we wanted to talk about more holiday food traditions like
the jelly donut. Yeah. Also, Annie might have a mild
donut obsession. You bought twenty four donuts from Voodoo at
midnight on a workship one time, and you've got a
(06:16):
donut obsession. I also like to just bring donuts. Yeah,
but I'm not just talking about the Voodoo donuts. This
is an intervention. It's not it's not. No, it's terrific.
Oh my good that would be great though, in pods intervention. No,
I don't know your love of donuts is fine and
well balanced with the rest of your life choices. Thank you,
(06:39):
but you're very welcome. But okay, so wait a second,
since when our jelly donuts holiday food? I don't know.
I have to admit I I didn't know this until
you you taught me, schooled me. I missed it as
well until just a few years ago. But there are
donuts called satuh singular self yeah, that are this type
(07:01):
of jelly filled, deep fried yeast dough doughnuts served around Hannica,
mostly in Israel. The dough is soft and a little
melty on the inside and a little crisp on the outside,
and they're frequently coated and powdered sugar, served either warm
or room temperature, and they sound good. They do sound good.
They're also very similar to the German pastry the Berliner,
(07:24):
which is eaten on New Year's Eve, and in parts
of Spain and Latin America, bled yellows, which are doughnut
type things that may or may not be filled with
jammer custard, are popular around Christmas. This may also be
where the French New Orleans bignets come from. Oh oh yeah,
and other fried dough desserts do pop up around various
(07:45):
winter holidays, but I'm kind of trying to stick with
filled doughnut fried pastries here, so I don't go totally crazy. Yeah,
but would be remiss if we didn't mention the punch
key of Polish traditions and the fuss nuts of the
Pennsylvania Dutch, though both of those are eaten around fat
or Shrove Tuesday or Thursday, which happens in the late
(08:07):
winter early spring. In all cases, however, these treats are
a symbol of luck for various reasons. I mean, also
just fried things are tasty, yes, and because of our
love of fried things. There are also non holiday versions
of the jelly donut for any day of year. You've
got crop fin in Austria, Bismarck in the American Midwest,
(08:29):
bould de Berlin and France, Fralls in France, Italy's coffin,
and a bunch more, some of which will be discussing
a bit later. My favorite name for one of these
things is Germany's semi erstwhile fast nut cultural chin fast
not cultural chin. Yes, just because of the name. It's
(08:50):
a pretty excellent name. It's all one word in capitalized
because German. Yeah, anyway, go ahead. Obviously there is just
the jelly donut too, And to be clear, we are
talking about the jelly donut. We'll come back to donut. Yeah,
we'll come back to donut one day. This wouldn't be
a food stuff without some kind of weird food record.
(09:12):
So here it is. The largest sufgania was constructed in Jerusalem,
coming in at thirty five pounds, five pounds of which
were jelly. However, I just got creaked out. She did,
She like retreated in on herself. A few years earlier,
in the Guinness Book of World Records listed a jelly
(09:32):
donut made in Utica, New York, as weighing as staggering
one point seven tons. My blood pressure just went up
picturing it. I'm not sure that I'm prepared to deal
with that. Yeah, on like an emotional level, I think
I think I'd pass out I saw it. I don't
(09:53):
know it would be for the best too, because I
don't need to be tackling a one point seven and
jelly donut. Picturing Annie just taking a running leapt into
it and then falling just all the way back. Oh no, okay,
I'm glad I wasn't around for this basically, So let's
(10:15):
talk some history. Yeah, according to a story out of Israel,
the jelly donut was sort of a conciliatory gift God
cave to Adam and Eve after kicking them out of
the garden of because don't we all crave donuts during
difficult times and happy times and all the time. Again,
the point being a jelly donut is pretty well liked.
(10:37):
Whether or not that's an accurate depiction of how humans
got jelly donuts. Yeast raised bread, as we've discussed before,
developed in tandem with beer brewing five thousand years ago
or more. Some of these were surely sweetened bread. Sometimes
the front the dough got fried in oil instead of
being baked. And uh, fruit serves made with honey have
(10:58):
probably been around for about as long. It wouldn't have
been until about the turn of the B C C
E switch over, though, that sugar would have been used,
as that is when the sugarcane refinement process saw development. Meanwhile,
all around the world, people noticed that winter is coming,
or rather what well, I mean they noticed that it
(11:20):
that it came once a year on our planet. I see, Yeah,
you know, the days got shorter, which was probably terrifying
when you weren't sure why that was happening. And furthermore,
everyone had to bundle up and you know, make their
own fun in order to get through the cold months
with their sanity intact. And then when the weather started
lightening up again, you know, that's a pretty good reason
to have another party. Yeah. What I'm saying is that
(11:42):
basically all humans have held rituals and celebrations to stave
off the dark and celebrate life at the beginning and
end of winter basically forever, it makes sense. One European
tradition of particular interest to Jelly Donuts and I love
that sentence so much um is the carn of All,
which is said to date back to ancient Babylonia like
(12:03):
circa twenties six hundred BC. This was a festival that
celebrated mirth and change through satire by making a show
of role reversals. There would be a parade through the streets,
a pair of peasants would be royalty for the day,
and royalty would act like fools. Pranks were played, Folks
would wear costumes depicting social classes other than their own,
(12:24):
and everybody partied These traditions were incorporated into and or
disseminated through Grecian and Roman cultural traditions like the Baccanalia
and Lubercalia and Saturnalia, and then through Christian traditions, especially
Catholic ones during the Middle Ages, maybe like nine d
Bests not bc CE. These traditions became super popular through Europe,
(12:47):
and then colonization brought them to the America's and the
concepts show up modernly and everything from Brazil's Carnival to
New Orleans Marty Gras and the Pennsylvania Duchess fus not.
This is in the Hunchback of Notre Dame, I believe,
is it? And I'm just realizing that because I watched
that for the first time since childhood. Recently I watched
(13:07):
the Disney movie I did not read the book. Um. Yeah,
and they have this the Parade of Fools. Is that
what it was? Where they switch? Yeah, it's all making sense,
thank you. Jelly Donut episode who No, I didn't, oh man,
Jelly Donuts um in parts of what's now Germany and
Austria mostly probably Uh. The Carnival is a season that
(13:28):
starts on November eleven at eleven eleven am and runs
all the way through the beginning of Lent in the spring,
with most of the partying done during the last week
as everyone prepares to be all solemn again. Lent, if
you don't know, represents the forty days between the death
and resurrection of Christ and frequently involves fasting being being serious. Um.
Somewhere along the line, fried yeast donuts filled with jelly
(13:51):
became associated with the holiday, perhaps because folks were trying
to use up rich ingredients like large that they wouldn't
be allowed to use during Lent. Yeah. Perhaps, And speaking
of Germany, the country played an important role in the
next step of the jelly donuts history. And we'll talk
about that after a quick break for a word from
(14:12):
our sponsor. And we're back, Thank you sponsor. We're back
with a cookbook. Oh yeah, cookbook quk in my Studi
or Mastery of the Kitchen, published in Nuremberg and translated
(14:35):
into Polish and two became a bedrock cookbook for the
medieval Europe, for the medieval Europe, for medieval Europe and
one of the first printed via Johannes Scuttenberg's fancy new
printing press. Yeah, and it featured a recipe for gave
futa kruppin the first written recipe for a jelly donut,
(14:56):
it was more like a fried jelly sandwich, though it
was two rounds of yea spread with jelly in between
that was then fried and lard. That translation to Polish
thing was crucial to the development of the punch key
and poland, and they were also popular for Christmas and Hanka.
The Yiddish word for this was punch chicks. Oh, I
hope I'm getting that correctly. And of note, the Yiddish
(15:18):
word for the unfilled version was doughnuts um. To get
around the non kosherness of lard, they were often fried
and goose fat oil are schmaltz. Specifically for Hannukah, fried
treats like this are embraced because of the symbolism of oil.
The holiday is the festival of lights, and it celebrates
the story of this miracle in which one night's worth
of lamp oil lasted for eight nights while practitioners rededicated
(15:41):
a temple that had been profaned um. Though whether punch
key were part of Hanukkah traditions or were just like
available around the same time in Poland and therefore people
ate them sometimes is up for debate, since sugar was
quite expensive at the time, most donuts were filled with
savory stuff like meater cheese, so putting in sweet things
(16:02):
it's pretty new and extravagant, which of course meant it
was a treat to be indulged in around holidays until
the sixteenth century, when the price of sugar fell with
the influx of sugar from the Caribbean. Uh jams and
jellies grew in popularity as the price of sugar fell,
and soon pretty much every country in Europe had a
type of jelly donut. They were still fairly difficult to
(16:24):
make and relegated to holidays and special occasions until the
invention of the metal pastry syringe in Germany, which simplified,
cheapified and needified the process of making jelly donuts. Also,
according to legend, Marie Antoinette, who was originally from Austria,
introduced jelly donuts to the French court, where they were
a big hit bear leaners. The term anyway, has been
(16:47):
around since the nineteenth century in Germany, and there's a
story out of seventeen fifty six is detailing the resolve
of a patriotic baker deemed unfit for service in the
Prussian military, but he was out to stay on as
a baker in the field. A baker in the field,
he had to figure out a method of baking without
an oven, however, since evans generally weren't part of a
(17:08):
military's equipment, so he turned to frying things using an
open fire, and the soldier named these things after the
baker's hometown. At first, it was a pretty broad term
that over time it came to me only filled fried donuts,
and I believe that Lauren mentioned earlier jelly donuts were
often associated with Strove Tuesday, the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday
(17:30):
in March and April. Around this time as well, that
that association started was existing continue to exist as the
nineteenth century en did. Jelly donuts picked up the name Bismarck's,
allegedly named after Chancellor Otto von bismartin sure sure yeah,
or possibly the similarly shaped German you boat, the Bismarck Man,
(17:54):
or possibly neither of these things. Yeah. With the immigration
of essentially your hands to the American Midwest, parts of
Canada and Boston, you started to get Bismarcks in those areas.
Um they picked up even more names as they spread
to Long John's jam Busters jam Donuts. The term jelly
(18:15):
donuts first popped up in the US around this time, too,
jam Busters I Know, I Love jam Buster. The donuts
also kept the name punch key in several communities of
Polish Jewish immigrants around the globe, including one in Australia.
Polish immigrants in Israel bought with them the tradition of
eating jelly donuts for or around Hanukah, and soon began
(18:38):
calling them sunat, referring to the Talmuds. Swuft gun a
sort of spongy dough, and the root of the words
sponge and sun yat most likely traced back to the
Greek word for spongy suf. There's also a similar word
in Arabic, and also the Hebrew word uh sulf eg
(18:59):
would also means kind of like absorb or sponge um,
all of which probably root from the same word. Probably anyway, Yeah,
Possibly sugiat got their inspiration from deep fried balls of
dough eaten during Hanaka by the Jewish community in Northern Africa.
They had migrated there in the eighteen hundreds and picked
up a sponge that that that spongey fried dough from
(19:22):
the locals. Some Jews Hoopson's migrated away from the area
still eat sponge as a Hanaka delicacy. By the way, apricot, raspberry,
and strawberry are some of the popular fillings for sugiat.
The Israeli Labor Federation the his Studge Roots named sukanyatt
the official food of Hanakah over the latka in the
(19:44):
ninet twenties, and the reason had to do with the
labor involved in making, transporting, and marketing the thing lot
because the other contender were relatively easy to make at home.
It's like a little fried potato pancake, kind of like
a hash brown, like a singular hash brown, a singular hashbrown.
But the sufganiyat Uh, it was kind of difficult, and
most people would rather go to professional baker than take
(20:07):
on that endeavor. I would, I would too, um And
this was, as you may surmise, very successful. In two
thousand and nine, around eighteen million sufganiyat were consumed in
the weeks leading up to and during Hanukkah. During those
eight days, the Israeli Defense Force buys fifty thousand sufganiyata
a day for soldier and morale. Seventy of the sufganiyat
(20:30):
in Israel are jelly filled, but other fillings have become
more common, including the Brazilians preferred filling of Delta de Lache,
which made its way back to Israel. I've also heard
that like anything goes like up to like like for gras,
champagne cream, gold leaf toppings. How extravagant, right, I love it?
(20:51):
I want to I want to fluk out donut mm hmmmm.
In one the Washington Post reported on a crime jelly
donut helped foil more jelly justice, jelly justice excellent bum
bum Okay, So here's the quote. Jelly filled donuts were
(21:13):
the downfall today of a man attempting to rob a
bakery at Pistol Point. First, Mrs Pauline Keller, fifty two
and spry for a grandmother, swung a bag of donuts
and knocked the gun from his hand. Then her screams
brought her husband from a rear room. The bandit turned
to flee, but slipped on a jelly covered dunker and
skidded feet first into a woman customer entering the front door,
(21:35):
he was captured. I feel like that that needed to
have been read in in the Transatlantic accent. That's the
bandit turned to flee, but slipt on a jelly covered
dunker and get a feat first into it. I'll stop now.
We do love the transit like accent in this office.
Pretty lovely it is, anyway. Anyway, Once World War two ended,
(21:56):
a sizeable amount of Polish immigrants settled in Detroit, and
to this day, Pontchky Day is celebrated on Fat Tuesday
in Detroit. Yeah, and now we're going to talk about
fire safety laws. Yeah, aren't you excited? Why aren't you excited?
I'm I am actually very excited about fire safety, aren't
we all? But first, one last break for a word
(22:17):
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, Yes,
thank you sponsor. Okay, So fire safety laws, here we go.
As we started to implement these in the US, it
(22:38):
precluded a lot of bakeries from being able to make
their own donuts, fryars our whole category. Yeah, pretty dangerous camp.
This led to a spate of specialty donut shops who
could then sell their products not only to customers, but
to other bakeries who couldn't make their own. In Massachusetts
in the nineteen forties, William Rosenberg, the son of immigrants,
(23:00):
worked in industrial catering, and he went around selling snacks
out of the use converted trucks near factories usually, and
he observed that of his sales came from coffee and donuts.
So in ninety eight he opened a donut shop in Quincy, Massachusetts,
America's donut heartland according to what I read, and he
called it Open Kettle. He targeted blue collar workers and
(23:25):
had the ambitious aspiration of offering fifty two doughnut varieties,
one for each week of the year. And two years
later Rosenberg changed the name to Duncan Donuts. Yep, that
Duncan Donuts. Five years later Rosenberg started franchising, buying out
(23:47):
his skeptical business partner slash brother in law, and you
could find one hundred Dunkin Donuts by nineteen sixty three
and one thousand by nineteen seventy nine. England's Allied Lions
bought Duncan Donuts and it's one thousand eight driden fifty
locations in and the aforementioned previous business partner he started
a competing donut shop. I'm sure that their family get
(24:08):
togethers were not intense at all. The first donut franchise
to get Kosher's supervision at some of its branches called
Mr Donut in nineteen fifty six, that Mr Donut, that
Mr Donut, Donut Feud, Donut feud. Five thousand Duncan donuts
were up and running by the time of Rosenberg's death,
(24:30):
and forty of them were Kosher supervised, altogether, boasting two
million customers a day. Yeah, who knew Duncan donuts? And
this episode gave an excuse to look at something I've
always wondered. The spelling. The spelling the correct spelling of donut.
So donut the longer one, um was the original. The
(24:52):
shortened one has existed since the eighteen hundred's, but it
was Duncan Donuts that brought it to the cultural psyche. Yeah,
donut is still the preferred spelling, with donut the long one. Yeah. Oh,
I am acting as if you can see what I
am envisioning in my head. Yes, donut the preferred spelling
is the long one, with the shorter one used only
about one third of the time in American writing, but
(25:15):
I've been using them interchangeably throughout this entire outline. I'm lazy,
so I just say D O, N U, T. Yeah,
But doesn't it It gives you the little red underline
of not spelled correctly. I learned to ignore those a
long time ago. I should take a page out of
Lawrence book or spell things correctly. That's nice too. I'll
(25:37):
think about that later, but for now, let's step back
a bit. Uh. The year is nineteen sixty three. Yes,
JFK delivers a famous speech, the most recognizable line from
which is easily ick bin and Berliner. Now JFK at
a reputation for mincing pronunciations and other languages, and man,
(25:59):
oh yeah, we can relate. Oh yeah, this this episode alone,
I'm sure. I'm sorry, y'all. Yeah, we do our best.
We looked it up, we did, and so did he.
He even wrote out the phonetic pronunciation of Berliner the
same way that we did in this one. And in
the Sour Beer episode he deviated from the speech written
(26:20):
for him in over the Lines he thought it wasn't
tough enough on the Soviets. With the help of his
German interpreter, JFK decided to be more direct at his
point about democracy's role in the global stage and went
with it Ben and Berliner, and over the years after that,
all of these news stories sprang up claiming that what
(26:40):
he said was I am jelly donut and that the
only reason Germans didn't laugh was because the situation was
two tests. However, the area around Berlin didn't really use
the term. They instead used the more fun fankin I
just did a like fun Yes, speaking of fun um,
(27:03):
a spy novel called The Berlin Game written in nineteen
three may have helped give rise to this jelly donut
mishap myth when it mentioned that German cartoonist who went
to town making fun of JFK for the incident, which
they did not know then in The Times ran with
an editorial previously appearing in Newsweek titled I Am jelly
(27:24):
filled doughnut. It's kind of solidified the whole thing. It
was one of the first things that popped up when
I searched jelly donut, and I wasn't sure why, but
now I know, it seems that it's just a myth. Though, yeah,
it's just a yeah, well, I mean, he said, I
mean Berliner does mean jelly donut. And he did say
I am a Berliner, right, but everyone understood. Yeah. And
(27:47):
in Berlin where he was giving the speech, it wasn't
really called that anyway. Yeah, yeah, it was really inspiring speech.
It was. It was like the best proudest thing you
could ever say is to say that I am a Berliner.
We're all Berlin Berliner. Yeah, all jelly donut, You're a
jelly donuts. And I guess when you think about it,
we are. There's so many layers to this. It's filled
(28:09):
with layers. Oh my goodness. The type of things that
were filled with are different than donuts, though, I've heard
that a crop fen in Germany are traditionally filled with
rose hip jam. And I've also heard that sometimes as
a prank, folks will fill a few with mustard and
just mix some men with the regular ones surprise your friends.
Oh man, I really want to do that, And I'm
(28:32):
not sure what it says about me. Oh no, well,
why did I give you this idea? You were the
one that was playing that Bertie Butts terrible Russian Roulette
bean game yesterday, being boozeled. Oh excuse me, being amozzled. Yeah,
that's about what we have to say about jelly donuts. Yes,
like we said, we will come back donuts to other
(28:55):
donuts later. Yeah, yeah, there there was. There was too
much we had to we had to concentrate. Yes, donnut holes.
Oh yes, goodness, it's kind of really good. But if
anyone listening to this around one of the many holidays
or traditions that include jelly filled donut of some type,
I hope that this gives you many facts to annoy
(29:15):
your friends and family with and that you enjoy, enjoy
yourself and enjoy a jelly donut. Man, I've never had
a had a like punch Key before. I'm really really
looking forward to finding them. I'm thinking that we should
do that and then post it on social Oh that's
a great place. Then it's work on research, yes, research,
(29:36):
And that brings us to the end of our classic
episode on jelly donuts. I hope all the jelly donuts
are in your life if you want them, Yeah, just
as many as you want and or need. Yes, yes,
need is a good word. And we would love to
hear about, honestly, any any jelly donuts making experience. Our
(29:59):
t sting experience because I I really don't have much
of my own to draw on, so I'd love to
hear from listeners. Yes, and you can email us. Our
email is Hello at savor pod dot com. Oh, we
are also on social media. You can find us at
savor pod on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook, and we
(30:20):
do hope to hear from you. Savor is production of
iHeart Radio. For more podcasts for my Heart Radio, you
can visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks as always to
our super producers Dylan Fagan and Andrew Howard. Thanks to
you for listening, and we hope that lots more good
things are coming your way
Savor News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Lauren Vogelbaum
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