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Why are donuts called sinkers?

Author

Emma Payne

Published Jan 07, 2026

'Sinkers' is a Depression Era reference to stale doughnuts. By dunking the stale doughnut into a hot beverage such as coffee or chocolate, it made it edible and more often than not, quite tasty.

Is a donut called a sinker?

sinker [late 19c] - any form of doughy cake, esp. a doughnut. Thus, sinkers and suds is doughnuts and coffee - from the habit of dunking doughnuts into one's coffee.

What is coffee and sinkers?

Oh, by the way, if you're not up on your semi-antiquated jargon, 'coffee and sinkers' is slang for cheap coffee and donuts. 'Sinkers' because if the donuts are overly dense or stale they'll sink to the bottom of the coffee cup when you dunk 'em.

What are donuts originally called?

They were originally called "oily cakes."

The early Americans took the fact that the treats were fried in oil quite literally, naming them olykoeks, translating to "oily cakes." The word 'donut' came soon after when a woman is said to have put nuts in the dough before frying it.

What is the British word for donut?

There are two common spellings of the dessert; doughnut and donut. The former is considered the UK spelling and the latter the Americanised version. Often Americanisms drop the 'u', for example in colour versus color.

28 related questions found

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rubbish Add to list Share. Rubbish is a synonym for garbage or trash. The word is more commonly used by speakers of British English than by speakers of American English. The noun rubbish also means writing or speech that is worthless, untrue, or nonsense, especially in British English.

What do Brits call the living room?

The main room in an American home, the room where people usually sit and do things together like watch television and entertain visitors, is called a living room. The British name for this room, sitting room, sounds rather quaint and old-fashioned to American ears.

How did donuts originate?

Hanson Gregory, an American, claimed to have invented the ring-shaped doughnut in 1847 aboard a lime-trading ship when he was 16 years old. Gregory was dissatisfied with the greasiness of doughnuts twisted into various shapes and with the raw center of regular doughnuts.

Why do doughnuts have holes?

To fully cook the insides of the dough, the dough would have to stay in the oil for a longer time, which would lead to the outsides becoming burnt. Punching a hole in the middle of the dough, however, allows the insides and the outsides to cook evenly, creating a perfect donut.

Who invented donut holes?

But a tale that survives is of a sea captain named Hanson Gregory, born in Rockport, who reportedly ate blobs of dough -- fried in whale fat by his mom -- while piloting his ship. One day in 1847 he impaled the blobs on the handles of the ship's big steering wheel for easy snack access.

What is meant by sinker?

Definition of sinker

1 : one that sinks specifically : a weight for sinking a fishing line, seine, or sounding line. 2 : doughnut. 3 : a fastball that sinks as it reaches the plate.

What is a donut without hole called?

Jelly Doughnut

These classic doughnuts are typically round without a hole in the middle, and generally leavened with yeast.

Why are donuts shaped the way they are?

To fully cook the insides of the dough, the dough would have to stay in the oil for a longer time, which would lead to the outsides becoming burnt. Punching a hole in the middle of the dough, however, allows the insides and the outsides to cook evenly, creating a perfect doughnut.

Do donut holes come from donuts?

Although donut holes were originally derived from their ring donut counterparts, now sellers produce and bake them separately. Thankfully, these mouthwateringly decadent donuts make our favorite pastry look anything but boring.

Which country invented donuts?

“Doughnuts are deep-fried cakes with a long European history and roots in still earlier Middle Eastern cuisine. They were introduced to America by the Dutch in New Netherlands to America as oliekoecken (oil cakes or fried cakes).

What was the first donut flavor?

Fast-forward to the mid-19th century and Elizabeth Gregory, a New England ship captain's mother who made a wicked deep-fried dough that cleverly used her son's spice cargo of nutmeg and cinnamon, along with lemon rind.

Did a cow invent the donut?

In early colonial times, US Dutch immigrants discovered fried cake. So the story goes, a cow kicked a pot of boiling oil over some pastry mix, thus inventing the golden brown delight.

What do the British call a shower?

A shower cap.

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In British English, "bathroom" is a common term but is typically reserved for private rooms primarily used for bathing; a room without a bathtub or shower is more often known as a "WC", an abbreviation for water closet, "lavatory", or "loo".

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Diaper is what they use in North America, and Nappy is the word used in the UK & Ireland, Australia, NZ and many other Commonwealth countries.

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A frequently given etymology, although widely rejected as a folk etymology, derives it from Hiram Codd, British soft drink maker of the 1870s, known for the eponymous Codd-neck bottle, with the suggestion that codswallop is a derisive term for soft drinks by beer drinkers, from Codd's + wallop (“beer (slang)”) “Codd's ...

Why do bagels have a hole?

Ever wondered why bagels have holes in the middle? The basic shape is hundreds of years old and serves lots of practical advantages besides an even cooking and baking of the dough. The hole also allowed them to be threaded or piled high on a dowel which made them easier to transport and display.

When did doughnuts get holes?

This is the birthplace of Captain Hanson Gregory, who first invented the hole in the doughnut in 1847. Erected by his friends, Nov.