What this Polish man tried here sounds equally dangerous, delicious, and highly flammable.
Rising energy prices keep inspiring people to come up with unusual ideas. In Poland, a YouTuber has now attracted attention after trying to find out whether heavily discounted donuts could actually be used as heating fuel.
Inspired By The Simpsons?
There’s probably nothing left that could happen in the world that hasn’t already happened – in one way or another – on The Simpsons. And that’s without even getting into conspiracy theories claiming that Matt Groening is part of a world-controlling elite or that Epstein Island was supposedly predicted in his cartoon show.
But who knows – maybe the producers behind America’s favorite yellow family really have hidden the occasional hint in episodes featuring Homer and the rest of the gang, such as a tip on how to heat your home cheaply.
Do you remember the scene in which Homer attends a class where the instructor holds a donut over a Bunsen burner to demonstrate how many calories it contains, claiming that the blue flame proves it’s an especially delicious pastry? It’s quite possible that this very idea inspired a YouTuber.
Donuts As Heating Fuel
The Polish creator Mark Hoffmann, known online as AdBuster, noticed that around the traditional Polish holiday Fat Thursday, supermarkets drastically undercut each other’s prices – with donuts reportedly costing the equivalent of just $0.0028 per piece. Instead of simply eating his fill, however, he came up with a more practical idea.
Thanks to their high fat content, donuts have an energy value of about 18 megajoules per kilogram – roughly comparable to standard wood pellets used for heating, but significantly cheaper.
For his experiment, the YouTuber purchased more than 130 heavily discounted donuts, totaling around 22 pounds of pastries – cheaper than an equivalent amount of wood pellets.
The donuts were then burned in a small cast-iron stove. According to Hoffmann, they burned steadily for several hours. During the test, he observed that the melting fat acted similarly to fuel, further sustaining the combustion process.
He claimed that the heat output lasted longer than that of a comparable quantity of pellets. At least in theory, the experiment demonstrated that high-fat foods can possess surprisingly high energy potential.
More Experiment Than Solution
However, the YouTuber himself emphasized that the test was never meant as a serious heating recommendation. Aside from practical issues – such as smoke and odor – there is also an ethical concern: burning food intended for consumption is hardly a sustainable solution.
Nevertheless, the experiment highlights a real problem. With heating costs rising, many households are searching for alternative energy sources. In some regions of Eastern Europe, people have already begun using unconventional fuels such as grain or agricultural waste.
In the end, the donut experiment remains above all one thing: a spectacular reminder of how much energy even everyday food contains – and how creative people can become when energy prices rise.