Thanksgiving Feed - Spudnuts (1950)

Back in 2013 I ran a blog post about the noble Spudnut. Back then I focused on the "everything new is old again" of an alternate doughnut shaking up the beats of cops across the nation. So, this ad isn't really new. It's just odd because it was placed sideways in what I'm sure the advertisers thought was "innovative and groundbreaking."

Yep, this is the way the ad ran. March 6, 1950 issue of Life Magazine ran this ad for Spudnuts, the potato mutant child of a doughnut and a french fry. Actually, I shouldn't speak ill of them since I've never tried one. It's just the idea - I mean to me potatoes have always been the sidekick to a burger or a steak, not a cup of coffee. So, a passing fad, right? I mean, nothing this patently weird could actually last, could it? Well, yes.

The parent company that ran this ad offering franchises to savvy tater-oh fryers back in 1950 may have gone under, but a few hard core buds off the original vine are still in existence. For instance, one in Charlottesville, VA, a comfy looking hole in the wall. In fact there's a site dedicated to the remaining Spudnuts across the country.

Not exactly sure what the bikini-clad girl has to do with potato doughnuts, but there she is none the less.

A Doughnut Party!

Olivia de Havilland and Dick Powell starred in the Warner Brother's 1938 production of Hard to Get, which doubtless is the reason for their appearing in this 1938 ad for the industrial-sounding Doughnut Corporation of America, New York.

The movie recycles previous Powell plots - poor boy (Powell) falls for rich girl (de Havilland) followed by music and hilarity. I don't really see a doughnut connection, though. As for the ad, we start with a story line, Olivia and Dick are sitting around the Warner Brother's commissary (apparently Dick is playing an ice cream man in some flop movie) and they come up with the swell idea to throw a doughnut party for the cast. Apparently they get hooked on the round grease-cakes, and soon they're having them at every meal - doughnuts for breakfast, doughnuts for dessert, and a doughnut martini after dinner. We follow through to the "cast party", but...wait...they've got Halloween decorations? What the hell kind of movie is this anyway? If I were a member of the cast I think I'd be a little unimpressed - I mean they took the doughnuts from the commissary and used recycled decorations from last year's office Halloween party.

The Doughnut Corporation of America might still is in existence, though they're apparently more secretive than the NSA. They don't have a website and the repository of all knowledge that is Wikipedia has no valid information.

Spudnuts!

In these days of cronuts, I wanted to introduce you to the first alternative dough - the potato. Spudnuts are exactly what they sound like – spud-based doughnuts. As usual once I stopped laughing, I started researching and found that the doughnut made from potatoes has more than a little history. 

In typical American fashion, Al and Bob Pelton built a business on reinventing something that already existed. They had encountered potato-based doughnuts while in Germany and came home to America with the idea of making the odd little cakes marketable (and themselves rich).  They ran through several formulations before finally coming up with a dry potato mix that let them franchise the Spudnut concept and they went into business in 1940. By 1946 Spudnuts had gone nationwide and by 1952 the Peltons were featured on the cover of the now defunct Mechanix Illustrated.

The Pelton brothers eventually retired, selling Spudnut Industries Inc. and it was eventually bought by Dakota Bake-N-Serv. Within a year of the purchase even the potato mascot of the old Spudnut days had retired but the company seemed to have a bright future – that is until the new ownership wasted the company's funds on shaky land deals and drove it into the ground.

Unlike so many brands of the past, though, Spudnuts persist. According to Google Maps you can satisfy your spud craving at the Spudnut Shop in Richland, WA. If you happen to stop in, please let me know about the experience. I'm intrigued, but about two thousand miles too far away to make the trip!

By the way, if you're interested in making your own Spudnuts, the three recipes below come from The Book of a Thousand Recipes (1912). Supposedly the Peltons revised the recipe quite a bit in their quest for a marketable Spudnut, but they were after a dry mix that could be used to easily and quickly supply a doughnut shop. These more traditional versions lack the detail we've come to expect from our modern cookbooks, but they should put you on the path to glazed bliss.

Happy National Doughnut Day

It’s the first Friday in June and that means National Doughnut Day. You might be thinking, “What’s this? Another corporately produced holiday and one that takes advantage of America’s poor eating habits?” Well, National Doughnut day actually has quite a long history. The event was created by The Salvation Army in 1938 as a way of honoring the women who provided comfort to soldiers during World War I by serving coffee and doughnuts.

In 1917 the Salvation Army concluded that some of the needs of US soldiers could be met by founding canteens and social centers (called huts) which served baked goods, provided supplies for writing and sending letters home, and provided for mending the soldier’s clothing. These huts typically consisted of six staff members, four of which were women whose job was to “mother” the boys. About 250 Salvation Army volunteers performed this canteen service in France during the war, earning the women who staffed the huts the moniker “Doughnut Dollies”.

In 1919 Billy Frisch composed the song Don’t Forget the Salvation Army (My Doughnut Girl) to commemorate the service of the Doughnut Dollies and Arthur Fields later released the tune on an Edison Blue Amberol cylinder.

So, while you’re enjoying a complementary glazed Krispy Kreme with your morning coffee just remember this day really commemorates more than deep fried dough. Then again, there’s nothing wrong with a National Deep Fried Dough day, is there?