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Joe Froggers The New England Cookbook Eleanor Early Yield: 4 dozen 5-inch cookies 1 cup shortening (not Crisco) 2 cups sugar 1 Tbsp. salt 3/4 cup water 1/4 cup rum 2 tsp. baking soda 2 cups dark molasses 7 cups flour 1 Tbsp. ginger 1 tsp. clove 1 tsp. nutmeg 1/2 tsp. allspice Cream shortening and sugar until light. Dissolve salt in water and mix with rum. Add baking soda to molasses. Sift flour with ginger, clove, nutmeg and allspice. Add liquid ingredients alternately with flour mixture to creamed mixture. Stir well between additions. Dough should be sticky. Chill overnight in refrigerator. In morning, flour board and rolling pin. Roll dough out to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut with large cutter. (A big brandy snifter makes a nice Joe Froger.) Bake in 375o for 10 to 12 minutes, or until done. Note: These were, according to Ms. Early, the best molasses cookies in Marblehead. They were made by and named for Uncle Joe, a man who lived on a frog pond, because they were as plump and dark as the frogs in the pond. They never get hard so they were popular with the fisherman when they went to sea. The recipe was a secret but Uncle Joe would trade a batch for a jug of rum. He said that what kept them soft was rum and seawater. Eventually the secret was revealed by his daughter and they are now (that is, were in 1954) served in the old Village Tavern in Sturbridge. |
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