Molasses and my 79 years make me feel like I’m part of history. The great stuff came much earlier than I did — and it is here to stay. Large barrels of molasses first arrived in Boston Harbor a century or so before our American Revolutionary War. Almost immediately, it was included in dozens of recipes and still is. It is that good. It is sad that such a fine food was also part of an awful business. Molasses was soon fermented and distilled into rum — which was traded for slaves — which were shipped to Cuba and our South and traded for molasses — which was shipped north — making money all the way. Our Civil War stopped the slave trade, but barrels of molasses remained items of trade. In due time, I learned in school about the history of molasses.
As a child during the Great Depression, those barrels of molasses were part of my life (indeed, our lives). Our farm was just across the Canadian border from Fort Fairfield. My older sisters and I carried our family molasses jug to the Aroostook Junction store on our school sleigh in winter and our long school car in spring and fall. The driver always stopped at the store on the way to school and again on the way home so we could pick up our precious molasses.
We guarded our glass molasses jug carefully in the lurching vehicle. Once one of our neighbor schoolmates was careless for a moment, and the family molasses jug was broken. It was not considered humorous in any way. Both the molasses and jug were important, and we knew it.
We children were not allowed in the store back room where the molasses barrel was kept. Incidentally, however, there was a pickle barrel in the store. We were allowed to reach our hands into the no-germs-alive brine and choose our pickle.
No reasonable paragraph is long enough to list even the kitchen uses for molasses. My mother and I used it for cakes, gingerbread, doughnuts, and all sorts of cookies. For me, molasses is best in just plain molasses cookies.
Mother used a memorized molasses cookie recipe. I learned it early on.
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1cup shortening
1 cup molasses
2/3 cup butter milk
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
*1 tsp lemon extract
Enough flour (about 5 cups) to roll soft dough
Whip the eggs. Add and stir the rest except the flour. Add the flour last to make a soft dough. (I let my dough set in the refrigerator overnight before I roll it to bake.)
About the lemon extract: When I was a (much) younger housewife, I complained to a friend that the last of a large batch of molasses cookies hardened somewhat before my children (now in their 40s and 50s) ate them all. My friend asked her mother about my problem. Her mother said that she used a teaspoon of lemon extract for that problem. I tried it. It works. It has been part of my recipe ever since.
Recipes which include molasses are nearly bride proof. They do not change much.
I like my molasses recipe because it is versatile. Most any size round cookie can be cut from dough rolled about 1/4 inch thick. These will cook in a 350 degree oven in 12 to 15 minutes. I do not spray or grease cookie sheets.
Dough rolled about 1/8 inch thick will make cookie boys and girls, animals, houses, barns, birthday cards—whatever you need for that children’s party. With colored frosting you can be an artist. These will cook at 350 degrees in 8 to 10 minutes (before they are frosted).
Also, a tablespoon of jam, jelly, or date or nut filling cooked between two 1/8 inch thick cookies make great filled cookies. Gently press the cookie edges together before cooking at 350 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes.
That ovens are different might present a problem. You might have to adjust times and temperatures somewhat, but my mother’s versatile recipe will be worth your effort.
You who are of my generation know all about molasses. How about passing this on to younger people who can use it.
For information on issues related to aging, contact the Aroostook Agency on Aging at 764-3396 or 800-439-1789. E-mail: Info@aroostookaging.org or visit www.aroostookaging.org.
Me and Molasses
By Phyllis Hutchins
