I decided to try writing a test piece, and, for better or for
worse, I chose the subject of chocolate chip cookies. I
figured the facts would be easy enough to find. Hah! I get
the feeling that most of what is online was pulled out of thin
air--or folks wrote their theories as facts, or just plain
stories, and those stories have proliferated on almost all of
the sites masquerading as fact. It is easy enough now to go
back and check the supposed origins of the cookies, the base
that Ruth Wakefield was supposedly working with, and one can
see that what has been said is just plain wrong. I am hoping
to find something in her own words, but there is no precedent
in her earlier cookbooks. She also doesn't reminisce in her
later cookbooks. Ack!
--
Jean B.

Jean -- the story is fairly clear. Ruth Wakefield was working with an old
recipe for "Butter Drop do." between 1930, when she opened the Toll House,
and 1937 when she published the recipe in Toll House Recipes (as Chocoate
crisp cookies or something like that). The "do" is ditto, and the recipe is
in Amelia Simmons. She put in broken chocoate to get a chocolate cookie, and
was surprised that the chips were insulated by the dough, and did not melt
into the cookies. The Nestle distributors found out that she was ordering a
lot of chocolate, and looked into it, eventually buying rights to Toll House
Cookies, and manufacturing a chococalte chip of uniform size.

Most of this is in Lee Edward's Benning's book about origins of dishes,
attributed to a newspaper article. I will eventually find the newspaper
article, as I have a phone number for Wakefield's daughter.

--Mark Zanger

author, The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students
http://www.ethnicook.com
The American History Cookbook
http://www.historycook.com
"Jean B." wrote in message
...
I decided to try writing a test piece, and, for better or for
worse, I chose the subject of chocolate chip cookies. I
figured the facts would be easy enough to find. Hah! I get
the feeling that most of what is online was pulled out of thin
air--or folks wrote their theories as facts, or just plain
stories, and those stories have proliferated on almost all of
the sites masquerading as fact. It is easy enough now to go
back and check the supposed origins of the cookies, the base
that Ruth Wakefield was supposedly working with, and one can
see that what has been said is just plain wrong. I am hoping
to find something in her own words, but there is no precedent
in her earlier cookbooks. She also doesn't reminisce in her
later cookbooks. Ack!
--
Jean B.

Mark Zanger wrote:
Jean -- the story is fairly clear. Ruth Wakefield was working with an old
recipe for "Butter Drop do." between 1930, when she opened the Toll House,
and 1937 when she published the recipe in Toll House Recipes (as Chocoate
crisp cookies or something like that). The "do" is ditto, and the recipe is
in Amelia Simmons. She put in broken chocoate to get a chocolate cookie, and
was surprised that the chips were insulated by the dough, and did not melt
into the cookies. The Nestle distributors found out that she was ordering a
lot of chocolate, and looked into it, eventually buying rights to Toll House
Cookies, and manufacturing a chococalte chip of uniform size.

Most of this is in Lee Edward's Benning's book about origins of dishes,
attributed to a newspaper article. I will eventually find the newspaper
article, as I have a phone number for Wakefield's daughter.

--Mark Zanger

author, The American Ethnic Cookbook for Students
http://www.ethnicook.com
The American History Cookbook
http://www.historycook.com

This only showed up on my server today!!!! We have already
communicated re this by now, and I remain skeptical.... :-)

BTW, I did note that in your American History Cookbook, you
stuck with the facts that can be discerned. That is kind-of
where I am coming from too.

--
Jean B.