Excellent Cookies (1902)

What's in a name? A lot, as it turns out.

Very old cookie recipes hold a certain fascination for me. They’re usually written with limited information by professional or home bakers who knew their peers would have a similar background in household skills, and there was no need to ‘fancy up’ the recipe with a lot of extra language or steps. “Here’s a recipe for a cookie we like here,” they seem to say. “You’ll like it, too.” And that’s all.

Nowadays, we need more than that. Read any baking blog and your recipe will start with an essay on the joys of the craft, or how one’s daily life inspired the need to develop the food in question, or some other such frippery. Then you’ll finally get the recipe and detailed instructions on assembly. Home bakers in the 2000s can no longer assume the skill levels or experiences of any of our fellows.

I was delighted when I found this week’s recipe. It was included in a volume of collected recipes, published in 1902 and attributed to a Mrs. E. M. Muchanan. Mrs. Muchanan just called them ‘Excellent Cookies,’ and as I read the short recipe I thought to myself, ‘Challenge accepted.’ I’ll go through a lot for excellent cookies. Mrs. Muchanan certainly knew her branding.

Excellent Cookies

From The Ideal Cook Book by Annie R. Gregory (1902)

Ordinarily, I post the list of ingredients here. As Mrs. Muchanan’s list is the recipe, we’ll just dive in.

One cup of sugar, one-half cup of butter, two eggs, two tablespoonfuls of milk, two teaspoonfuls of baking-powder, a little nutmeg; flour to make a soft dough.

And that’s it. Are we having fun yet?

Challenges and Changes

Golly, where do I start? (As I’m attempting an early 1900s recipe, I may as well use early 1900s epithets.) How much flour and nutmeg? What should the oven temperature be? Are these drop cookies or roll-out-cookie-cutter cookies? How long do we bake?

I decided to start with a cup of flour and to add more until it looked fine. As for the nutmeg, a little goes a long way so I started with ½ a teaspoon. Then, I proceeded as is usually typical for cookies: cream butter and sugar, add eggs and other liquid ingredients, then sift together the dry ingredients and mix well. One cup of flour wasn’t enough, so I added another cup and it seemed to produce a nice, ‘soft dough.’ I also added ½ teaspoon more nutmeg, as the first addition didn’t seem to make any impact at all.

I decided to try a drop cookie first; if that didn’t work, we’d move to rolled-and-cut. I decided to preheat the oven to 375 degrees, and to bake a couple of drop cookies for nine minutes (Why nine? Why not?) The drop cookies puffed up and had good bottoms while the tops stayed snow white. I couldn’t imagine that these were the ‘excellent cookies’ that Mrs. Muchanan had so-named, so it was time to try a rolled-and-cut version.

First, I needed to add more flour, as the soft dough seemed too soft to roll out. I added ½ cup more, and ended with a nice, sturdier dough.

I rolled out a bit on some flour, and used a juice glass as my cutter (I’m not a fan of having lots of cookie cutters). Put three in the oven for 7 minutes - less time than previous for the much thinner cookies.

They baked up nicely and kept their shape, with tan, crisp bottoms. These seemed more ‘excellent.’

Even so, the proof is in the tasting. Before I baked the rest of the batch, I wanted to be sure of which was the better version. Luckily I have an expert cookie-taster at home. He tried both the drop and the rolled versions – and strongly stated that the drop cookie had the better flavor. The air in its ‘fluffier’ inner texture helped bring out the flavors of the butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

So, I baked the rest of the batch as drop cookies. Because of the extra flour I added before trying the rolled version, I changed the baking time to 8 minutes.

The Ratings

Cookie Appearance: 7

Cookie Texture: 8

Cookie Mouthfeel: 8

Cookie Flavor: 5

Overall Cookie Rating: 7

The scores for this cookie were all over the scale. On one side, we had folks who apparently enjoy a subtle cookie. These raters raved: "Awesome...moist and delish!" "Simplistic yet satisfying!" There were a couple more raters on this side than on the other sides, which is why the averages above skew to the 'good' end.

In the middle we had folks who liked the appearance and texture, but felt the flavor was bland: "Loved the softness of this cookie, but it lacked flavor and sweetness."

On the other side, we had folks who just didn't like it at all: "Very flour-like with no taste and a weird aftertaste." "More of a bread treat than cookie."

The negative reviews are understandable. When this recipe was developed, many foods weren't overly seasoned and today's cookies, especially those that are commercially produced, are definitely designed to have bigger, bolder flavors. Note as well: there's no salt in this recipe. Salt often acts as a flavor enhancer, and just a ½ teaspoon could have done very well.

If you'd like a simple cookie that would be great dunked in a strong beverage like coffee, the recipe as-is could do nicely. I did think, though, that these do seem a bit like snickerdoodles, and if rolled in sugar and flattened before baking, they could do well on their own. And if nutmeg is not your spice, many others could work as well - ginger, cinnamon, anise seed, or cardamom.

So, were these "Excellent Cookies?" In this case, it really depends on whom you ask.

Next week’s recipe: Cottage Cheese Cookies (1959)