How Does
How Do They Get Fortunes in Fortune Cookies?
By TS Owen
eHow Contributing Writer
Mystery History
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Like getting the caramel in the Caramilk bar, putting the fortune in the fortune cookie is simple ... once you figure out how.
The butter, vanilla, egg, sugar and wheat flour batter is spread into thin 3" circles and baked at 400 degrees F. This would brown, if not burn, the thin paper used for the fortunes, yet diners the world over enjoy pristine white-paper predictions and lucky numbers at the end of their Chinese meals. But not in China. The Chinese fortune cookie is not Chinese -- its secret was discovered in sometime around 1914 in California by (variously) a Japanese baker, noodle maker or gardener.
Secret Revealed
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Genuine American Fortune Cookies, as they are known in China, are baked flat for four minutes.
They are immediately removed from the pan and flipped over. While the sugar is warm, the dough remains pliable, so the paper fortune is quickly placed in the middle, the cookie folded in half and the edges pressed together.
The cookie is shaped to create the classic butterfly form and allowed to dry.
That was done with chopsticks until 1974, when, according to the Library of Congress, the first machine inserted the fortune and folded the dough. Now the largest factory in the world, Wonton Food Inc. of Long Island City, NY, produces 60 million cookies a month.
Growth Industry
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After its introduction in San Francisco, the fortune cookie spread quickly across North America and the world. By World War II, it was the traditional finish to Chinese meals in America, a sweet treat with a pithy saying from Confucius or Ben Franklin, lucky lottery numbers and an indecipherable Chinese message on the back.
A half dozen family-owned factories produce a half million cookies a day in San Francisco alone, offering choices of colors and flavors (some have chocolate dips) with custom messages from business advertisements to good wishes for wedding celebrations.
eHow Article: How Do They Get Fortunes in Fortune Cookies?
