Isle of Wight Doughnuts, Isle of Wight
Although the more reasonable among us would tend to think something as simple as a bit of bread dough deep fried is likely to have been 'discovered' in many different places, others would like to claim the glory for inventing doughnuts for their region. The Dutch say it was they who brought the doughnut to the USA; the Americans say it was them (with Homer Simpson's example they are now surely the national dish), just as it was they who captured the Enigma machine; and some residents of the Isle of Wight are absolutely convinced it was their home which gave birth to the delicacy.
The Isle of Wight version is rather different from the supermarket fodder most of us know. They are made with a dough using plain flour, butter, eggs and sugar, with milk to get to the right consistency and a good hit of nutmeg for flavour, raised with yeast, then filled. Unlike the conventional doughnut, the IOW variant is filled with either plums (traditionally) or currants, lemon zest, and candied peel, though jam is not unknown. Traditionally they would have been deep fried in lard, but now a healthier vegetable oil is more likely.
In times past the doughnuts made in Newport and the like were reputedly drained of fat on clean straw, but these days kitchen towel does the job just as well, and with less likelihood of insect ingress.
The texture of the IOW doughnut is more solid than Homer's doughnut, and dipped in sugar to finish it off, certainly not 'glazed'.
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