Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut
by Prof. Paul R. Mullins
List Price:
Our Price: $15.83
You Save: $9.12 (37%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $7.49 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Prof. Paul R. MullinsEdition: Hardcover
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09-07
ISBN: 0813032385
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Book Reviews of Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut
Book Review: A Beloved and Detested Sweet Treat
Summary: 5 Stars
"Tell me what you eat," said that philosopher of the kitchen Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, "and I will tell you what you are." What would he make of a nation which has the doughnut as one of the foods the world knows it by? What does it mean that doughnuts are defined as a particularly American food? Perhaps an anthropologist could tell us, and in the surprising and enlightening _Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut_ (University Press of Florida), anthropologist Paul R. Mullins has done so. Indeed, he has found those who say that a Krispy Kreme shop makes them proud to be Americans, and those who regard a shop as a shrine with pilgrims and converts. "It may seem absurd," Mullins writes, "that an apparently innocuous doughnut could be wrapped in the flag and lent an air of religiosity, but few dimensions of our world say as much about us as food." We do, however, have mixed feelings about our doughnuts. We may like them, but even those of us who like them know they are not really good for us, and there are those who hate them because they represent decadence or foolish food choices. Doughnuts, then, have a disputed symbolism, and their marketing and consumption can be mined, surprisingly, for various insights into American life.
The book reproduces a 1627 still life painting by Juan van der Hamen y Leon which shows pastries of the torus shape anyone would now recognize. This particular shape had one of its first mentions in print in 1877. That the toroidal shape certainly pre-dates cookbooks or oil paintings did not prevent an American from claiming invention of the doughnut hole. Captain Hanson Gregory, a cook at sea, found that the soggy and greasy doughnuts he was making resisted becoming more digestible by changing their ingredients, but once he lessened the lumps of dough by cutting a hole out, changing the shape made all the difference. He was nominated to the National Doughnut Hall of Fame for his contribution; the nomination read in part that he "not only discovered the hole in the first place, but invented the proper process for enclosing the hole in the doughnut." The Doughnut Corporation of America thus in the 1940s attempted to certify the appeal of assigning the origin of the hole in the doughnut to a New England seafarer. This is the same company that produced what Mullins says is "an ideologically distorted 1944 account" which claimed that the Pilgrims themselves brought their treasured doughnut recipe with them to the New World on the _Mayflower_.
In 2005, Florida governor Jeb Bush tried to strike a blow for Republicans within blue collar workers, when he wanted to know how many tax cuts Democrats had proposed for "Joe Bag of Donuts." In this, he was able to avoid reference to the drinking habits of Joe Six Pack, but Mullins shows that the consumption of doughnuts transcends economic class. However, the great spokesman for the doughnut is that industrial worker Homer Simpson, who gets four pages of coverage here in acknowledgment of his addiction. Mullins writes, "In _The Simpsons'_ hands, doughnuts are an especially powerful mechanism to examine the limits of desire, since doughnuts seem to have no significant redeeming feature besides the pleasure their ingestion produces." This "bad" characteristic has been the focus of the moralizing about doughnuts as early as 1846, and the importation of American doughnut franchises to other countries has been called "`calorie colonialism' planned by corporate America". The moral connection links cops to doughnuts, too; perhaps doughnut shops encourage being frequented by cops to keep robberies down, and perhaps, as one policeman argued, doughnut shops are easy places for cops to meet to discuss and solve crimes. Perhaps also they get free doughnuts (although any police force has rules against this), but there is no perhaps that doughnut shops remind citizens of the policeman's reputation for sloth and corruption. On a lighter note, wedding cakes are made from Krispy Kremes; one such record-breaker weighed over a ton, but many brides opt for a smaller version. In Portland, Oregon, Voodoo Doughnuts has doughnuts for weddings, and since the proprietors are ordained ministers, they offer weddings in the store. Mullins, as you can tell from this little summary, has pulled many facets of a humble luxury food together in a serious but entertaining study that answers in diverse ways the question, "What does the doughnut mean?"
Summary of Glazed America: A History of the Doughnut
In Mullins's skillful hands, this simple pastry provides surprisingly compelling insights into our eating habits, our identity, and modern consumer culture.
Cakes Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Cakes Books
The Good Cake Bookby Diana Dalsass
Dutton Adult; Published: 1982-11-15; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
Patisserie of Scandinaviaby Audrey Ellison
Little, Brown; Published: 1992-07-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $42.82
Patisserie of Mediterranean Hbby Haroutunian
Little Brown Hardbacks (a & C); Published: 1992-07-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $169.62
Patisserie: An Encyclopedia of Cakes, Pastries, Cookies, Biscuits, Chocolate, Confectionery and Dessertsby Aaron Maree
Cassell Illustrated; Published: 1995-08-31; Paperback; Book
Patisserie: An Encyclopedia of Cakes, Pastries, Cookies, Biscuits, Chocolate, Confectionery & Dessertsby Aaron Maree
Harpercollins; Published: 1994-06; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.54
Price in other shops:
Cakes (Penguin handbooks)by Barbara Maher
Penguin Books Ltd; Published: 1984; Paperback; Book
More Daley Breadby George Dale
Penguin Books (NZ); Published: 1999-10-01; Paperback; Book
Rose Elliot's Book of Cakesby Rose Elliot
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 1984-04-12; Paperback; Book
Rose Elliot's Book of Breadsby Rose Elliot
HarperCollins Publishers; Published: 1983-07-28; Paperback; Book
Best price: $80.67
The Confetti Cakes Cookbook: Spectacular Cookies, Cakes, and Cupcakes from New York City's Famed Bakeryby Elisa Strauss, Christie Matheson
Little, Brown and Company; Published: 2007-05-02; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $12.99
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700-2100: Europe, America, and the Third World (Cambridge Studies in Population, Economy and Society in Past Time)by Robert William Fogel
Cambridge University Press; Published: 2004-05-17; Paperback; Book
Best price: $24.94
Price in other shops:
Banana Cultures: Agriculture, Consumption, and Environmental Change in Honduras and the United Statesby John Soluri
University of Texas Press; Published: 2006-01-02; Paperback; Book
Best price: $19.70
Price in other shops:
Making Dough: The 12 Secret Ingredients of Krispy Kreme's Sweet Successby Kirk Kazanjian, Amy Joyner
Wiley; Published: 2003-10-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $7.00
Price in other shops:
The Donut: A Canadian Historyby Steve Penfold
University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division; Published: 2008-01-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.00
Price in other shops:
The Donut Chef (A Golden Classic)by Bob Staake
Golden Books; Published: 2008-09-09; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.01
Price in other shops:
Food in the USARoutledge; Published: 2002-07-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $44.00
Price in other shops:
Donuts: An American Passionby John T. Edge
Putnam Adult; Published: 2006-05-18; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $6.37
Price in other shops:
Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts: Secrets and Recipes for the Home Bakerby Mark Klebeck, Michael Klebeck
Chronicle Books; Chronicle Books; Published: 2011-09-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.62
Price in other shops:
The Donut Bookby Sally Levitt Steinberg
Storey Publishing, LLC; Published: 2004-10-15; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops:
Doughnuts: Simple and Delicious Recipes to Make at Homeby Lara Ferroni
Sasquatch Books; Published: 2010-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops: