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Molasses Cookies (Mrs F B Wilson large t soda T)
Mrs. F. B. Wilson. 2 large t soda 2 T sour cream, milk or boilsalt ing water Flour enough to roll out Mrs. Jessie Higgins.
Mrs. Ed. Quentin. 1 C shortening 1 C sugar 1 C molasses 1 egg 1 T vinegar
The page as printed has been scrambled — two or three contributors' versions of the same cookie have run together, and the ingredient columns of the original book have collapsed into one another. What survives is a complete set of proportions for a rolled molasses cookie, with almost no method.
- Reading the abbreviationsLower-case t is a teaspoon, capital T a tablespoon, and C a cup. "2 large t soda" is best read as two generous teaspoons of baking soda.
- What the jumble actually containsAssembled, the list reads: 1 cup shortening, 1 cup sugar, 1 cup molasses, 1 egg, 1 tablespoon vinegar, 2 teaspoons soda, 2 tablespoons sour cream, milk or boiling water, salt, and flour enough to roll. The word "salt" has been interleaved into "boiling water" in the printed text, which suggests it stood on a separate line in the original column.
- Soda and acidThe vinegar, the sour cream and the molasses are all acidic, which may be why the soda quantity looks high. The page does not actually say to dissolve the soda in the liquid, but doing so is sensible: dry soda stirred into a stiff molasses dough can leave bitter flecks.
- ShorteningIn a community cookbook of this kind this most likely meant lard, or lard and butter mixed; no date is given on the page. Modern vegetable shortening works and gives a softer cookie; butter gives more flavour and more spread.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses. Blackstrap is more bitter and more alkaline than what these cooks had and will throw the soda balance off.
- "Flour enough to roll out"Expect roughly 4 to 4½ cups. The dough should be stiff enough to handle but still tacky; chilling it an hour makes rolling far easier than adding more flour, which turns these hard.
- Missing spiceNo ginger or cinnamon is listed. If you want the familiar flavour, a teaspoon of ginger and a half teaspoon of cinnamon are in keeping.
- Oven and timeNo temperature is given. A moderate oven — around 350°F — for 8 to 10 minutes suits a cookie rolled about ¼ inch thick. They should still look slightly soft in the centre when pulled.
- YieldAbout four to five dozen 2½-inch cookies.
Community cookbooks like this one were compiled by subscription: each contributor sent in a favourite, and the printer set them in narrow columns to save pages. That economy may well be what has mangled this entry — three names, Mrs. Wilson, Mrs. Higgins and Mrs. Quentin, appear, and the columns seem to have bled together. Molasses cookies were a fixture of such books: molasses was cheaper than sugar and paired naturally with the soda-and-sour-milk leavening that every farm kitchen had on hand before baking powder became universal. The vinegar here does the same job as sour milk for a cook who had none that day.