Fortune Cookie: History, Ingredients, and Modern Production

Background

A fortune cookie is a crescent‑shaped, hollow biscuit that contains a paper slip with a short saying or "fortune." It is traditionally served at the end of a meal in Chinese restaurants, allowing diners to discover their fortune.

The origins of the fortune cookie are debated. While it is often associated with Chinese cuisine, the modern cookie was actually invented in the United States, with possible Chinese or Japanese influences. One theory links it to an ancient Chinese game played by the nobility, where twisted cakes contained paper with written subjects. Another story credits David Tsung, a baker in California’s San Joaquin Valley, with creating the cookie in the late 1810s by wrapping fortunes in egg‑roll wrappers. A third account attributes the invention to George Jung, who founded the Hong Kong Noodle Company in Los Angeles in 1916, and to Makoto Hagiwara, caretaker of San Francisco’s Japanese Tea Garden, who is said to have distributed fortune cookies in 1907.

Raw Materials

Standard recipes list flour, sugar, water, and eggs as the core ingredients. Commercial producers may also add baking soda, baking powder, turmeric extract, peanut oil, stabilizers, and anti‑caking agents such as silico‑aluminate. The fortunes themselves are printed on oil‑ and moisture‑resistant paper, often sourced from suppliers of fortune‑cookie machines. Some manufacturers produce custom fortunes for special events or marketing campaigns.

The Manufacturing Process

Baking the Cookies

• The batter is pumped into a circular oven that contains shallow cups (≈3 inches/7.6 cm in diameter). Flat metal plates are placed on top of the dough, allowing heat to reach both sides and create a golden brown finish. One full rotation takes 3.5 minutes, the time required for the thin dough to bake. An alternative method pours dough onto a griddle and stamps out shapes with metal forms.

Folding the Cookies and Fortunes

• After baking, a mechanical arm picks the cookie from the plate and moves it to a receiving station. Vacuum suction attaches the paper slip to the hot cookie. Two robotic fingers fold the cookie in half, creating the half‑moon shape, then bend it into the familiar crescent. The cookies cool by air from a fan before being packaged in small bags for retail or larger bags for restaurants. The bags are then boxed for shipment.

Quality Control

Manufacturers adhere to strict food safety regulations. Ingredients are inspected upon arrival, machines are cleaned regularly, and production is continuously monitored to meet quality standards. Because the process is largely automated, opportunities for contamination are minimal, and waste is kept to a minimum.

Fortune content also undergoes quality checks. Distributors often review the style and wording of fortunes, with some approving up to 1,000 slips before they are printed. Legal departments may review fortunes to ensure compliance with advertising and trademark rules.

The Future

Fortune cookies remain popular due to their light texture, low calorie count, and versatility. The market now offers flavored varieties such as almond, chocolate, lemon, blueberry, and coffee, as well as gourmet versions in individual tins. Some brands include lottery numbers on the back of fortunes, and personalized messages are available for corporate or wedding events. The industry has also expanded internationally; the first fortune‑cookie factory in China opened in 1993.