About Early Cookie Flavorings

Appears in

Published 1994

About

Vanilla, which we’ve come to expect as the basic flavoring for cookies, as well as for a host of other baked goods, was not used in most early American cookie recipes.

Thomas Jefferson introduced it into this country in 1789, when he returned from his stay as Minister to France to become George Washington’s Secretary of State. Even when vanilla beans, which are native to Madagascar, began to be imported, they were expensive, used only by the few who could afford this exotic luxury. Vanilla is still costly—and with good reason—each plant must be pollinated by hand. Vanilla extract wasn’t generally available until the late 1840s or 1850.