Blowhard, Esq. writes:

“One pound sugar boiled slowly in half pint water, scum well and cool, add two teaspoons pearl ash dissolved in milk, then two and half pounds flour, rub in 4 ounces butter, and two large spoons of finely powdered coriander seed, wet with above; make roles half an inch thick and cut into the shape you please; bake fifteen or twenty minutes in a slack oven — good three weeks.”

— a recipe for cookies in “American Cookery,” published in 1796, considered to be this country’s first cookbook.

My edition says the word “cookie” made its first published appearance here. It also notes that pearl ash was a forerunner of baking soda, in case you were wondering.

Related

• Facsimile editions of old books are pretty great. Here’s another good one. I particularly like these reproductions of the old Sears Roebuck and Montgomery Ward catalogs. Lots of fun to leaf through.