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Sugar Cookies (Egg cup sugar cup shortening)
1 egg, 1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup shortening, 1/2 cup milk (2 tsp. cream tartar, 1 tsp. soda sifted in the flour). Flour enough to roll out (about three cups), nutmeg or vanilla.
— Clara W. Taylor
A typical church-cookbook rolled cookie: the proportions are given, the method assumed. Anyone who has made rolled sugar cookies can fill in the gaps, but a few points are worth pinning down.
- Method, since none is givenCream the shortening and sugar, beat in the egg and flavouring, then add the milk alternately with the sifted flour, cream of tartar and soda. The dough should be soft but rollable.
- Chill before rollingThe dough is soft; an hour in the refrigerator makes it easier to handle. Roll it about a quarter inch thick on a lightly floured board.
- Cream of tartar plus sodaTwo teaspoons cream of tartar with one of soda is the older homemade equivalent of baking powder, and a single-acting one: it reacts as soon as it is wet, so get the cookies into the oven without long delays.
- ShorteningIn this period the word usually means lard or a vegetable shortening such as Crisco rather than butter, though usage varied. Butter will taste better and may spread a little more; use it if you prefer, and expect a softer edge.
- "Flour enough to roll out"Three cups is the starting point, not the answer. Add the last half cup a spoonful at a time — too much flour is what makes these cookies dry and hard rather than short.
- Oven and timeThe original gives no oven or time. A moderate oven, around 350-375F, for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are just coloured and the centres still look pale, suits them; they firm up as they cool.
- NutmegGrate it fresh if you can; about a quarter teaspoon is enough for the batch. Pre-ground nutmeg loses its point quickly and needs a heavier hand.
- YieldRoughly three to four dozen with a two-and-a-half inch cutter, depending on thickness.
Rolled sugar cookies leavened with cream of tartar and soda are older than commercial baking powder, and recipes like this one persisted in home kitchens long after tinned powder was on every grocery shelf. The nutmeg-or-vanilla choice suits the period: nutmeg was the older American cookie spice, while bottled vanilla extract was widely available and affordable by the early twentieth century. Philathea classes were young women's Bible study groups organised within Baptist and other Protestant Sunday schools, beginning in the 1890s, and cookbooks compiled by such a class were generally sold to raise funds for it. That accounts for the form here — a contributor's name attached, quantities only, and little or no method.