A doughnut is a widely popular sweet pastry made from leavened fried dough, typically enjoyed in various forms such as the classic ring, filled varieties with preserves or cream, and smaller "doughnut holes." Its culinary history is ancient, with early recipes for fried dough appearing in Cato the Elder's Roman texts and a 13th-century Arabic cookbook detailing a doughnut-like sfenj that even used a hole for proofing. The pastry arrived in North America with Dutch settlers in the early 18th century as "olykoek" (oil cake) in New Amsterdam, though these early versions did not yet feature the modern ring shape. The term "dough-nut" gained prominence in the early 19th century, notably described by Washington Irving in his 1809 A History of New York as "balls of sweetened dough, fried in hog’s fat."