Shawn, I think back in the day baking soda wasn't as easily "dissolvable" as it is now; may have been more coarse/hard? Anyway, a lot of older recipes call for baking soda to be dissolved before using. I have a strong hunch the 1 teaspoon water was for dissolving the soda; and eventually the people at Nestle's decided it didn't need dissolving, but they just left the water in the ingredient list, anyway. The oatmeal cookie recipe on the Quaker Oats carton is the same - it's always included a teaspoon of water for no apparent reason. One of those quirky "history of recipes" fun-facts, I guess, eh? PJH

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