Easy as pie

[Anne Lambert]

See my immortal, unpublished master's thesis, "American Regional Names for  Some
Fast Food Items" (Harvard University, March 1991) : "fried cake" is upstate NY,
northern PA, Western Reserve of Ohio (spread by settlers from the East), parts of
Connecticut, and the Platte River area of Nebraska and the Dakotas (also due to
settlers). It is being replaced by "doughnut."  "Cruller" is Dutch and used in
Dutch-settled areas; it usually refers to a twisted doughnut. Variant names for
this are: "crawler" (folk etymology), "twister," "twisted bismarck," "twisted
doughnut," etc.  I am from Chicago, and I never heard "sinkers" there; it is a
term for a very heavy doughnut.

Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:

> EASY AS PIE
>
>     Christine Ammer's AHDOI has:
>
> _easy as pie_  Also, _easy as falling_ or _rolling off a log_.  (...)  Mark
> Twain had it in _A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court_ (1889): "I
> could do it as easy as rolling off a log."  The first colloquial term dates
> from the early 1900s, the colloquial variants from the 1830s.  For a synonym,
> see PIECE OF CAKE.
>
>     The AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE, March 1898, Miscellaneous, pg. xxviii,
> col. 1, has an ad for Enterprise Raisin and Grape Seeder:
>
> _AS EASY AS PIE_
>    Raisins can be seeded quick as a wink, ready for pie or cake--every seed
> coming out clean.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------------------------------------
> CHESS PIE (continued)
>
>      Another recipe for "Chess Pie" is in the AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE,
> February 1899, pg. 170, col. 2.
>      I'm a chess master; the recipe looks pretty easy to me.
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------------------------------------------
> DOUGHNUTS/ CRULLERS/ FRIED CAKES/ POVERTY CAKES/ RAISED DOUGHNUTS/ SINKERS/
> FRIED HOLES
>
>      From the AMERICAN KITCHEN MAGAZINE (taken from THE WATCHMAN), September
> 1898, pg. xxiv, col. 2:
>
>      "It amuses me to hear you call them crullers," said Mr. Haskins.  "Now
> in Boston, we never think of calling them anything but doughnuts.  But I
> suppose the influence of the Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam--"
>      "Why don't you give them a name that means something?  They're fried
> cakes--nothing more or less.  Anybody in Connecticut will tell you that,"
> interrupted Mr. Chesterfield, the floor walker.  (See "friedcakes" in DARE,
> which also gives "doughnut, cruller"--ed.)
>      "I'm afraid you gentlemen are not given to nice discriminations,"
> remarked Mr. Collamore, the young lawyer at the right of the landlady.
> "There's a great difference between a cruller and a doughnut.  A cruller is
> sort of twisted, and is solid; but a doughnut is round and has a hole in it.
> Now these are--"
>      "It always makes me laugh to hear men discuss any questions of cookery,"
> chirped up Mrs. Riggs, the stenographer.  "They see only the outside, and
> never notice the essential things.  Now let me tell you the difference
> between crullers and doughnuts.  A cruller is much richer and 'shorter' than
> a doughnut.  It is made with eggs, while a doughnut isn't.  The shape has
> nothing to do with it.  A doughnut is made of plain dough--"
>      "Why, that's what we used to call 'poverty-cakes' up in Vermont!"
> exclaimed Mr. Plunkett, the drug clerk.  (DARE?--ed.)
>      "I was about to say," resumed Mr. Riggs, severely, "that doughnuts are
> made of plain dough, raised as bread is raised, while crullers are not
> raised--"
>      "But down in the State of Maine we have what we call plain doughnuts and
> what we call raised doughnuts, both," said the medical student.  (DARE?--ed.)
>      "And out in Chicago we call those things 'sinkers,'" said the tall,
> long-haired man at the foot of the table as he pointed to the plate.
> (DARE?--ed.)
>       The debate lasted long and grew eloquent.  In the midst of it there was
> the sound of a chair pushed back and a satisfied sigh.  The new boarder, a
> boy--just a plain boy who was learning the hardware business--got up and
> remarked, as he slid out the door, "Them things may be doughnuts, or
> crullers, or fried cakes, or poverty cakes, but they're awful good.  I ain't
> had any before since I left home.  That's why I ate so many.  We used to call
> 'em 'fried holes.'"
>      The eyes of the boarders turned toward the plate in the centre of the
> table.  It contained only a little powdered sugar.  The boy had listened to
> the discussion, but he had not allowed it to divert him from more momentous
> matters.
>      "I believe that boy will do real well in the hardware business," said
> Mrs. Skinner, after a painful pause.