An historian at the United States Navel History Museum posted this recipe for sugar cookies that would have been served to sailors in the 1940s and 1950s, back when taste mattered more than health. As a tribute to my Dad, who was a US Navy cook in the 1950’s, I’m re-posting this recipe and making a batch to take to him. While the original recipe was for 150 servings, I am posting a version scaled down to a more modest audience. FYI, if you think I’ve written the ingredients list in weird way, take it up with the Admiral.
Ingredients
- 2.5 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 0.5 cup + 0.25 tsp milk
- 0.5 cups + 1 TBL shortening
- 0.5 tsp + 0.25 tsp vanilla
- 1.5 tsps baking powder
- 2 tsp nutmeg – possibly optional
Process
- Mise en Place – measure and prepare you ingredients prior to starting.
- Preheat oven to 375 F.
- Mix all the ingredients in a mixer at medium speed until dough is smooth.
- Drop dough onto greased baking sheets. FYI you can use paper or silplat lined sheets.
- Bake 8 to 10 minutes.
- Let cook on wire rack before stacking.
To serve, find an old galley cook to make you the worlds strongest cup of black coffee and eat your cookies with their coffee – no milk, no sugar, that’s they way the Marines drink their coffee, at least that sounds like something my Dad would say.
