Joe Froggers

The history of Joe Froggers is as rich as their ingredients. The cookies were first served in the early 1800s in a lively Marblehead tavern owned by Joseph Brown, a freed slave known as Black Joe, who fought in the Revolution. (The former tavern still stands atop the appropriately named Gingerbread Hill.)

Even though the recipe was first made by Brown’s wife, Lucretia, and even though her hands stirred the batter and cut the dough with a 4-inch clay pot, the cookies were named after Black Joe. According to more foodlore, the giant dark rounds gained their moniker because they resembled the frogs living in the pond behind Joe’s tavern, or perhaps because the traditional frogger is as round and flat as a lily pad.

The cookies were popular traveling companions for generations of Marblehead mariners, as much for their taste as their ability to keep on long fishing voyages. Captains’ wives always packed spicy confections for fishermen to take to sea. In the case of froggers, the rum, salt, water, and spices act as preservatives to keep the cookies moist, while the lack of dairy products prevents them from spoiling.

Source: Christopher Klein
Boston Globe Correspondent / January 13, 2010