Posted on 06/17/2021 4:52:42 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Anyone who has been to the Northeast is likely familiar with the miniature Dunkin Donuts confection the donut hole, aka the Munchkin. After an unsuccessful online search, I called headquarters to learn more about the history of this sweet, only to find them quite silent on the issue. What follows is based on hopeful speculation for the sake of an example of spandrel and exaptation in evolutionary theory.
Gould and Lewontin (1979) came up with the terms spandrel and exaptation to provide an explanation for the origins of heritable traits that weren’t initially adaptations. An adaptation begins as a trait that is selected for a particular function that it serves the carrier. A spandrel is a leftover of an adaptation. It has no function and is not subject to natural selection. However, if that spandrel is co-opted for a particular function, it is considered an exaptation – and then can actually become subject to selection. Though it didn’t begin as a functional product, in the end it comes to be. For example, bird feathers were initially an adaptation for thermoregulation, and later were co-opted, or exapted, for the function of flight. Flight in this case didn’t originate as an adaptation, but was co-opted from the spandrel.
The Munchkin illustrates the concept of exaptation well, though it requires a baker as “selector”, whereas natural selection operates with no selector. A doughnut in this example is a circular piece of dough with an empty circular middle. Imagine that the shape is created by making a round of dough, and then cutting out the middle piece, leaving you with the doughnut and some extra dough. Imagine further that the baker typically throws the middle piece aside as it serves no purpose. The middle piece here is a spandrel – it serves no function to the baker, but is rather a leftover portion of the functional dough – the doughnut.
However, the baker decides that those leftover pieces are too much of a waste. She decides to roll them into a ball and sell them separately from the doughnuts. She gives them a name, Munchkin, and markets them to dieters, children, and dog-owners for treats, and finds that these formerly useless pieces are now bringing in money. They have been co-opted for the function of money making, and therefore the Munchkin is an exaptation. Now she finds them so popular, the baker is creating different flavors, and fun boxes in which to sell the doughnut holes.
What originated as a mere by-product of the doughnut has now come to serve the function of a profitable treat. Though the Munchkin, as an exaptation, will be subject to selection pressures. Perhaps customers will prefer chocolate rather than plain Munchkins, resulting in more chocolate Munchkins being made. Or perhaps the mere size of the Munchkin will allow it to find its way to more diverse environments than the doughnuts, resulting in more Munchkins being made than doughnuts. Whatever the end result, the Munchkin shows that while some features are not initially subject to selection pressures, if they come to serve a function, someday they just may be.
When I worked in a bakery and cranked out 700 dozen donuts a day, I never saw one munchkin. I used a hand crank donut depositor.
I think munchkins were invented and not a “spandrel.”
Same here. I worked in a bakery as a teenager back in the '60s using a hand cranked donut (called doughnuts back then) maker like the one you mentioned and no munchins were produced.
I used to tease a co-worker who was OBSESSED with those bags of broken pretzels they flavor either spicy or sweet:
"Mary! HOW can you EAT those? They're the FLOOR SWEEPINGS from the Pretzel Factory!"
She believed me - for about 3 seconds, LOL!
Also, when I was a kid in 'The People's Republic of Milwaukeestan' there was a Johnson's Cookie Factory within walking distance of my Grandma's house. My Uncle Bob would take Sis & I there and for a few bucks you could get a whole paper grocery bag FULL of mixed, broken cookies! Grandma used them in crusts for various baked bars, on top of ice cream, layered with pudding...we lived like KINGS!
To this DAY I can't eat a cookie unless I smash it first, LOL!
Henry Higgins made doughnuts with a machine like that. My mom rolled the dough and cut them with a doughnut cutter. I always loved the doughnut holes the best. She put everything in a brown paper lunch bag filled with powdered sugar and shook them until they were thickly coated. They melted in your mouth.
My mother made donuts at home when I was a kid in the 60’s. She was a child of the depression and wasted nothing. We had the donuts and the holes.
The doughnut holes becoming Munchkins must be imaginary. For one thing, the assortment includes jelly Munchkins, and jelly doughnuts have not holes. The reason unfilled doughnuts have holes is so as to not have it uncooked in the middle. What would they do with the imaginary doughnut holes in French Cruellers?
When I make doughnuts, I make a round ball and use my finger to make the hole. It helps them cook more evenly. The holes are not cut
Ditto. The shop I worked in ended up buying a special depositor to make the “holes”, since for cake doughnuts there were no holes. Yeast doughnuts’ “holes” were just re-rolled into the next tray...
Exactly.
It’s dough!
Knead the leftover holes together and make more doughnuts.
Spandrel Ballet, loved their music in the 80’s
Spiral sliced ham is a result of a miscalibrated slicing tool.
I’m not sure how many folks know that Wendy’s Chili meat is composed of the overcooked unsold hamburgers from the day before. True story. I was an assistant manager for several months in 1981. (No, I didn’t qualify for Kenny Roger’s Roasters. Were they even a thing then?)
And a brilliant idea, if I may add. Cuts way down on waste.
What was this thread about?
No! It was Spandough Ballet!
Not to be confused with Mannheim Strudelroller.
Spandrels...sounds like a hybrid of spaniels and scoundrels.
Those are simply “donut holes.”
Mister Donut was definitely better than Dunkin’ Donuts.
i LOVE WENDYS CHILI
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