{
 "id": "buttermilk-bar",
 "type": "donut",
 "names": {
  "name": "Buttermilk bar",
  "aliases": [
   "buttermilk donut"
  ],
  "said": "Split down the middle like it fell apart, which is how you know it is the right one."
 },
 "region": [
  "socal",
  "us"
 ],
 "facets": {
  "dough": "cake",
  "finish": "glazed"
 },
 "text": {
  "what": "Cake batter cut in a bar rather than a ring, fried so it splits open along the top, and glazed heavily enough that the glaze runs into the split.",
  "story": "*Tradition holds —* the bar is a West Coast case staple and a test of a cake bench: too warm a batter and it will not crack, too cold and it breaks apart. It belongs to the same family as the old-fashioned, which cracks for the same reason, and shops that make a good one tend to make a good old-fashioned too.\n\nNo published history names an inventor or a first shop, and this project has not found one.",
  "how": "Buttermilk cake batter, rested cold, cut in rectangles, fried at a temperature low enough that the crust sets before the lift finishes. Glaze while warm.",
  "today": "Priced as a bar rather than a ring in most shops, which is to say a little more."
 },
 "kin": [
  {
   "to": "old-fashioned",
   "as": "Cracks for the same reason, in a ring.",
   "rel": "donut"
  },
  {
   "to": "cake-donut",
   "as": "The batter it comes from.",
   "rel": "donut"
  },
  {
   "to": "socal-pink-box",
   "as": "A fixture of the California dozen.",
   "rel": "style"
  }
 ],
 "sources": [
  "s:wp-cake-doughnut"
 ],
 "provenance": {
  "default": {
   "tier": "tradition"
  },
  "fields": {
   "text.what": {
    "tier": "tradition"
   },
   "names.said": {
    "tier": "tradition"
   },
   "text.story": {
    "tier": "tradition",
    "note": "no published origin found for the bar; the record says so rather than filling the gap"
   }
  }
 },
 "confidence": "medium",
 "needs_verification": true,
 "schema": 1,
 "updated": "2026-09-16",
 "blurb": "Cake batter cut in a bar rather than a ring, fried so it splits open along the top, and glazed heavily enough that the glaze runs into the split.",
 "region_terms": [
  {
   "key": "socal",
   "name": "Southern California",
   "state": "CA",
   "note": "Los Angeles, Orange County, the Inland Empire; the pink box and roughly a thousand independent shops"
  },
  {
   "key": "us",
   "name": "The United States",
   "state": null,
   "note": "use when a node belongs to the whole country"
  }
 ],
 "kin_out": [
  {
   "to": "old-fashioned",
   "type": "donut",
   "name": "Old-fashioned",
   "as": "Cracks for the same reason, in a ring.",
   "rel": "donut"
  },
  {
   "to": "cake-donut",
   "type": "donut",
   "name": "Cake donut",
   "as": "The batter it comes from.",
   "rel": "donut"
  },
  {
   "to": "socal-pink-box",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "The Southern California pink box",
   "as": "A fixture of the California dozen.",
   "rel": "style"
  }
 ],
 "source_list": [
  {
   "id": "s:wp-cake-doughnut",
   "kind": "web",
   "title": "Cake doughnut — Wikipedia",
   "publisher": "Wikipedia",
   "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cake_doughnut",
   "accessed": "2026-09-16",
   "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0"
  }
 ],
 "tiers": {
  "text.what": {
   "tier": "tradition"
  },
  "text.story": {
   "tier": "tradition",
   "note": "no published origin found for the bar; the record says so rather than filling the gap"
  },
  "text.how": {
   "tier": "tradition"
  },
  "text.today": {
   "tier": "tradition"
  }
 },
 "primary_image": null,
 "tag_facts": [],
 "recognition_facts": [],
 "acclaim": 0,
 "kin_in": [
  {
   "from": "socal-pink-box",
   "type": "style",
   "name": "The Southern California pink box",
   "as": "The tell of a shop that can run a cake bench.",
   "rel": "donut"
  },
  {
   "from": "cake-donut",
   "type": "donut",
   "name": "Cake donut",
   "as": "Cake batter cut in a bar, cracked open, glazed heavy.",
   "rel": "donut"
  },
  {
   "from": "old-fashioned",
   "type": "donut",
   "name": "Old-fashioned",
   "as": "Same batter, cut in a bar.",
   "rel": "donut"
  }
 ]
}