Cookie Cutters Are A Popular Tradition With Lots Of History

Vintage Tins:Cookie Cutters Are A Popular Tradition With Lots Of History

have been around for hundreds of years, and today they’re seeing a renewed popularity as more and more cooks are turning to traditional cookie recipes. Although baking fans have always relied on cookie cutters to create interesting and attractive sugar cookies, gingerbread men and other tasty treats, cookie cutters haven’t always been as popular as they are now.

The earliest cookie cutters were actually wooden molds made in Europe with some even dating back to the Middle Ages. These early molds were brought to the United States by German settlers in the 1600′s and 1700′s and quickly became popular with colonial homemakers.

Tinsmiths probably made the first true cookie cutters in the late 1700′s. Tinsmiths would keep the scraps of leftover tin from larger projects and craft them into pretty shapes for cookie cutters. Simple hearts, crosses and stars were popular gifts that tinsmiths would give to their customers. Eventually they became so popular that tinsmiths began making sets and selling them to new cooks and housewives across the frontier.

Tin remained the most popular metal for cookie cutters throughout the 1800′s largely because it was easy to work with and inexpensive. You could create a wide variety of shapes and hold them together with a bit of solder, making them inexpensive to make. In the 1920′s, however, tin gave way to aluminum. These new cookie cutters kept their shiny good looks better than tin and were lighter weight.