THE TASTE OF HISTORY

In addition to a selection of new recipes, and reprints from previous editions, the East Hampton Ladies Village Improvement Society's 60th Anniversary Cookbook has a wealth of narrative.

The "Cookies" chapter, for instance, offers an excerpt from an essay, "The Vanishing Pantry," by Mrs. George Odell of Towson, Md., the former Miss Mary Osborn of Wainscott.

"Among all the relics of a bygone civilization, I mourn most sincerely the passing of the pantry," she wrote. "In one form or another, this honored institution is almost as old and revered as matrimony itself. . . . Any rambling old house in the country in the early 1900s had at least five places where a child could pick up a light lunch between meals. Besides all these food hoards in attic or cellar or closet or kitchen chamber, every self-respecting household had a pantry."

"Our playmate Nelly's pantry always had a delightful smell of old-fashioned cookies. There was a cookie jar, never empty, and we thought those soft rich spicy molasses cookies one of the best things to eat in the world."

OLD FASHIONED MOLASSES COOKIES

1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
11/2 cups molasses
3/4 cup melted shortening (lard or Spry)
1/4 cup hot water in which
1 heaping tsp. soda has been stirred
41/2 cups sifted flour
1 tsp. salt
3 tsps. ginger.
Chill, then pat or roll out. Bake in medium oven.
Mrs. Edward F. Cook