Norma’s Oatmeal Cookies

Made with lard. And love. Mostly lard.

A similar recipe calling for sour milk appeared in the December 5, 1913 edition of the Le Grand (Iowa) Reporter in a letter submitted to “Aunt Lue’s Column”:

Oatmeal Cookies. “1 cup sugar, 1 cup butter or lard, 2 eggs beaten light, 6 Tablespoons sour milk, 1 teaspoon soda, 1 cup seeded raisins, 2 cups dry oatmeal, 2 cups flour, a little nutmeg and cinnamon. Drop from teaspoon and bake in moderate oven. Apple Salad. 6 or 8 tart apples, small bunch celery, 1 large cup English walnuts. Dice the celery and apples. Cover with dressing. Chop the nuts but do not add until ready to serve as they turn the salad dark. Dressing. 3 eggs, 1 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon each salt and mustard, 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Boil all together and when cooked add 1 cup sour cream.” Mrs. Virginia Arnold.

Mrs. Arnold was Canadian of English extraction; her husband worked in a general store.

From the box of A.D. from Lutz, Florida, by way of Pennsylvania in the 1940s, and originating in Ohio in the 1920s.