Loved the article..have you noticed on the back of the Toll House packages there is no water in the recipes. I don't know the year that they took that out, however, I do know this: my step father made our chocolate chip cookies for years, claiming to have the original back of the package recipe. Mom always said that the water was the one thing that "made" them the original! I see after reading, as to why you would add the water to the baking soda, but always did wonder why they took it out. I still make mine by the original recipe!! Thank you for a great article! You know what, the original oatmeal cookie recipe on the Quaker Oats box had (does it still have?) a teaspoon of water. I always figured it was there so Quaker could tell if someone was using their recipe without attribution; but now that I see Ruth used a teaspoon of water to dissolve the soda, maybe that's why Quaker's recipe had it, too. So interesting how recipes evolve over the decades, isn't it? PJH

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