Safari 12.1.2. Clearing "recently closed" menu without deleting cookies. Impossible?

How do I clear "recently closed" menu in Safari WITHOUT clearing cookies and website data? To clear my history in Safari I go to the History drop-down menu, I choose "Select All History" and then press delete. This doesn't clear cookies. This is what I want. However, this history still appears in "recently closed". That is ridiculous. I DELETED history. That means I want to delete it. I don't select "Clear All History" at the bottom of the History drop-down because that deletes cookies. I don't want to delete cookies. This is such a basic thing that is unfathomable to me that it is not possible.