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Edith's Oatmeal Cookies
. 1½ C sugar 1 C shortening ½ t soda Pinch salt 1/2 C sour milk 2 C oatmeal 2 eggs Raisins, nuts, flavoring ½ t baking powder Cream sugar and shortening together. Add sour milk, eggs, baking powder, soda, salt oatmeal, raisins and nuts, and flavoring. Also enough flour to roll.
Mrs. Nellie Ray
A community-cookbook cookie written in shorthand for someone who already knew how the dough should feel. The flour is left to the cook's judgment, so mix cautiously and stop while the dough is still soft enough to handle.
- The two half-teaspoonsThe soda and the baking powder are almost certainly half a teaspoon each; the printed "12" looks like a fraction that lost its slash. A full tablespoon of either would leave a soapy, bitter cookie.
- Flour is the whole judgment call"Enough flour to roll" means roughly 2 to 2½ cups with these quantities. Add it a half cup at a time until the dough just holds together off the spoon, then chill it 30 minutes — chilling does more for rollability than extra flour, which makes the cookies dry.
- Sour milkNot spoiled milk but naturally soured, mildly acidic. Substitute buttermilk, or put a scant tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar in a half-cup measure and top with whole milk; let it stand five minutes.
- ShorteningIn a collection of this kind "shortening" usually means lard or vegetable shortening rather than butter. A cup of butter works and tastes better, but spreads more; hold the dough cold if you use it.
- OatmealOld-fashioned rolled oats, not instant and not steel-cut. Quick oats will work but give a sandier, less chewy cookie.
- FlavoringUnspecified, as was normal — a teaspoon of vanilla is the default. A half teaspoon of cinnamon or a little nutmeg suits the oats and raisins.
- Baking350F for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are set and the centers still look slightly underdone. Rolled and cut thin, or dropped by spoonfuls if you would rather skip the rolling.
- YieldAbout four dozen 2-inch cookies, depending on how much flour the dough takes.
Church and ladies'-aid cookbooks were assembled by soliciting a card from each contributor, printed more or less as submitted, which is why measurements in them tend to be terse and flour is often left unquantified: the recipe was a reminder for women who baked weekly, not a set of instructions for a stranger. Titling a recipe with a first name while crediting the submitter separately was common practice. Sour milk appears constantly in these collections because farm households had it to use; paired with soda it gives a tender crumb and predates the reliable, cheap baking powder that eventually displaced the combination.