# Fortune cookies

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-cookies/41834>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 19, 2000, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-cookies/41834 "2000-11-19T08:45:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sethdallob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@sethdallob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sethdallob)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-cookies/41834/1 "2000-11-19T08:45:42Z")

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How do they get the paper in a fortune cookie?

It would be almost impossible (and tedious) to have a person slip it in post-baking (frying?)…

If you put the fortune in pre-baking/frying, how do they keep the paper from burning, much less keeping it from becoming one with the dough…

And, yes, I tried the obvious google search and couldn’t find much readily availible (but I am tired).

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**Author:** ![JavaMaven1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/cab0a1/32.png) [@JavaMaven1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JavaMaven1)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-cookies/41834/2 "2000-11-19T09:40:08Z")

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The fortunes are folded in post-baking.

The cookies come from the oven pliable, and the paper can be folded in quickly.

I had to make these for part of my Baking final in Culinary School and can personally attest to the tedious nature in the making of these (not to mention burned fingers).

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**Author:** ![light\_strand](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@light\_strand](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/light_strand)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-cookies/41834/3 "2000-11-19T19:30:37Z")

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I have nothing to add to the OP, but I am getting ticked off at the “fortunes” as of late.

They’ve been something like this:  
“You are a good person with many friends”

WHAT?!?! That’s not a fortune!!

I want my fortunes back! Besides, I hate the cookie. It tasts like a sugary piece of cardboard.

just my $.02

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**Author:** ![Why\_A\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/13edae/32.png) [@Why\_A\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Why_A_Duck)\
**Post date:** [November 19, 2000, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fortune-cookies/41834/4 "2000-11-19T19:36:27Z")

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Look out! Detour Ahead!

I highly recommend the book “Penn & Teller Play with Their Food” (or something like that). In it they talk about playing pranks with fake fortune cookies with messages like:

[li]That lump may be cancer[/li][li]You have two months to live[/li]  
That sort of thing.

And no, they’re not being cruel to other people. The trick was to palm the real one and open up the fake yourself and then with a shocked expression show it to others.

By the way, have you tried the chocolate fortune cookies? Yumm-er-ooo.