If you’ve ever ordered Chinese food in your life you’ve had this thought run through your head at least a few times post meal. “How do they get these fortunes inside these fortune cookies?!”
I’ve got answers for you…
According to loc.gov
The cookies get baked as flat circles first. Once they are done they’re removed from the oven and the paper fortunes are placed in them before they cool off while they are still flexible. As the cookies cool they harden into that fortune cookie shape we all know and love.
If you REALLY want to get crazy and know some of the inner-working details of how the modern fortune cookie making process is done here you go…
Modern machines follow the same steps of handmade fortune cookies: they mix ingredients, pour batter into 3” cups which are then covered with metal plates to keep the batter flat and bake for about 3 ½ minutes. Vacuums then suck fortunes into place, use metal fingers to fold the fortune in half to trap the fortune inside, bend the cookie into shape, and cool and package the final cookie. Now fortune cookie machines like the Kitamura FCM-8006W can make up to 8,000 cookies in an hour!
Photo credit: Getty Images