Ladies at Tea, Ft. Toulouse

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18th century ladies, edible flowers, violet jelly

I enjoyed co-hosting and visiting with everyone at the tea during the Ft. Toulouse F&I event (1760’s). The highlight of the day was watching William start to crawl so he could reach a piece of gingerbread. Soon he’ll be coming and going under his own power and mom and dad will be trying to keep up!

Deb’s tea selections included jasmine, Earl Grey, English Breakfast, and a peach flavored tea which was especially nice. It may run a close second to Earl Grey as my favorite.

Food included Irish bread with violet jelly, gingerbread with orange curd, finger sandwiches with fresh herbs, and apple nut small cakes. The platters were all decorated in keeping with the theme of edible flowers and the violet jelly served with the Irish bread was an example of what can be made from flowers.

The gentlemen joined us for a bit of a repast and fellowship after the ladies finished their tea and the day was quite lovely. Until next time, I bid you Peace & Blissful Meals. – the Historic Foodie

The History of Gingerbread, Part II©

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gingerbread

Cries of Paris, Gingerbread Seller

 Chaucer mentioned gingebreed (gingerbread) in his writings in 1386, however, he gave no description of the product.  As with early versions, his experience was probably with that made from honey, spices, and breadcrumbs or ground almonds.   

In Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery-Books, Gyngerbrede was made:  Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene; take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw ther-on; take gratyd Brede, & make it so chargeaunt that it wol be y-leched; then take pouder Canelle, & straw ther-on y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt leche it; take when thou lechyst hyt, an caste Box leaves a-bouyn, y-stkyd ther-on, on clowys. And if thou wolt haue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now. Austin, Thomas. Two Fifteenth-Century Cookery Books. Harleian MS. 279…and Harl. MS. 4016. London, 1888. Early English Text Society, Oxford Series, No. 91.

What did we just read?  Old English aside, this basically translates into bread crumbs combined with honey, spices, and saffron.  Such products were more candy-like and less gingerbread-like than we know today.

In old London, gingerbread was sold in stalls at all times of year.  It varied in form from that of a cake to bars which were sliced, or it was made into nuts and sold by the dozen.  Charles Carter’s version [1749] in “long rolls or cakes” was copied later by Elizabeth Moxon in 1764. 

Designs were sometimes stamped into the cakes as evidenced in John Murrell’s version penned in 1621.  “Roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds…”.

Wooden gingerbread mould

While George Read’s book contained one receipt in 1854 in which “nuts” were made by encasing an almond in gingerbread dough, the term generally meant simply gingerbread baked into small balls [Frederick Nutt, 1790] or rolled and cut into rounds.  Eliza Leslie instructed the cook to flour the hands and roll small pieces of dough into “little round balls”.

The selling of gingerbread in markets and stalls was a lucrative profession in former times.  “In the days of the early Georges, for instance, gingerbread was hawked about by a smartly dressed lad…but older folk were also employed.”

As will be shown later, George Read agreed with men selling gingerbread, but there were accounts of women who worked as gingerbread sellers.  By 1614, Ben Johnson had included the character of a gingerbread seller into his play, Bartholomew Fair.

“Joan Trash, the gingerbread woman, crying her ‘Fine gilt gingerbread!’  The last refers to the custom of painting the top in fine gold leaf, a custom that, “we do not see” by the 1870’s.    – Chatterbox.  1876.  Boston.   

Although it had been the custom for decades by then, in 1822 cooks were cautioned that, “…the use of this poisonous material [gilt] for gilding gingerbread and sweetmeats cannot be too much reprobated”.  – One Thousand Experiments in Chemistry. 

Having established the making and selling of gingerbread as a profession in Britain and America, let’s note that the same was true of France and Germany.  In 1878, when the treat had fallen slightly out of favor in the markets of London, it was noted to still be as popular as ever in those two countries.  – The Lancet.  Aug. 31, 1878.

The gingerbread seller has been illustrated in books and magazines from London and Paris attesting to the frequency with which the treats were sold. 

Some dealers took the gingerbread fresh and hot from the oven, wrapped it in heavy cloths, and took to the streets to sell it while yet warm from the oven. 

In 1854, George Read claimed the origins of gingerbread were Asiatic or Eastern because, “…the natives of these countries are extremely fond of sweetmeats and spiced bread”.  An appreciation of a delicacy doesn’t necessarily mean that culture was the first to make and enjoy it, and he did proclaim it to be universal though, carried to excess”, in Holland.

Those who wished to ingratiate himself with a family often depends in no small degree, on the quality and quantity of presents which he makes in gingerbread.

The many references Read made to the making of gingerbread inferred it was made by men.  “The receipt for it descended from father to son as an heirloom and was kept secret outside the family.”

The British also appreciated gingerbread and Read claimed lovers often made presents of gingerbread nuts and “fairings” to their mistresses and children would spend their last penny on gingerbread made into the shape of a, “horse, cock in breeches, or old man and woman”.  Of the three, the only shape that became universal was the man and woman.

There is a myth, or let’s say at least, that I found no first hand documentation to back up the story, that the first gingerbread men were made for Queen Elizabeth I. 

Shakespeare penned a line about spending one’s last penny in the world to buy gingerbread in Love’s Labour Lost.  Wouldn’t it be rather romantic to think of him presenting his wife, Anne Hathaway, with a gift of gilt gingerbread?

The receipts Read gave were intended for commercial use although one he described as, “an old receipt”, [old in 1854] might be a quantity practical enough for family use as it kept rather well.  He acknowledged that it was not fermented with yeast, as was bread, and the means of “gasifying” it was of comparatively recent origin. 

Take refined sugar, 6 lbs.; damask rise water, 3 pints, or enough to make a syrup of it, of the same consistence or thickness of treacle, which keep for use.  Take ginger, coriander seed, caraway seed, of each, in fine powder, 2 oz.; fennel seed, aniseed, each, in fine powder, 1 oz.; cloves, in fine powder, 1 oz.; mix them well together in a mortar which reserve.  Take of the former syrup 1 quart, of the reserved powder 2 oz. (more or less, as you would have it to taste of the spice); fine wheat flour, 3 quarts, or so much as may make it up into a pretty stiff paste; roll it out into thin square cakes and so bake it.  This exceeds all other preparations of gingerbread whatsoever.

The color of the gingerbread ranged from golden brown to dark brown depending on the quality of treacle or syrup used in making it up.

When gingerbread first contained a substance to make it lighter and therefore softer, the transformation was the result of the addition of pearl ash or potash.  Keeping the dough some time before baking it gave the leavening agent time to act with the treacle producing carbonic gas.  It was a slow process.  Carbonate of magnesia and soda were also in time, and produced a product lighter and spongier than that made with potash.  – Read, George.  The Complete Biscuit and Gingerbread Baker’s Assistant.  1854.  London.

The following should invoke interest among my readers since Christmas is looming on the horizon.

GINGERBREAD CAKES – Richard Briggs.  1788.  [The English Art of Cookery] Rub one pound of butter into three pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, two ounces of ginger beat fine and sifted, and a large nutmeg grated; then take a pound of treacle, a gill of cream, make them warm together, and make up the bread stiff, roll it out, and make it into thin cakes, or cut it round with a tea-cup or glas, or make it into nuts, or any form or shape you please, put it on oven-plates, and bake it in a slack oven. 

In 1867, a receipt was published for a pound cake flavored as gingerbread which was probably lighter than anything in Read’s repertoire. 

Pound Cake Gingerbread.  One cup of sugar, two cups of molasses, one of butter, one cup of buttermilk or sour cream, four cups of flour, four eggs, a tablespoonful of ground ginger and one of cloves, a teaspoonful of soda dissolved in hot water, and half a teaspoonful of cream of tartar poured in last of all.

There were no further directions given with the recipe for how it was made.  – Barringer, Maria Massey.  Dixie Cookery; or, How I Managed my Table for Twelve Years. 

Barringer’s Light Gingerbread instructed the cook to mix the soda into the molasses and then mix with the remaining ingredients.  I would suggest doing so with the pound cake.  Mix the cream of tartar and spices with the flour.  Cream the butter with the sugar and eggs.  Mix the soda with the molasses, and add it to the dry ingredients with the buttermilk or sour cream.  The soda could also be mixed with the buttermilk instead of the molasses as the maker prefers.

Historic Foods: The Evolution of Gingerbread©

 

Mid-19^th century diets changed little from the Colonial era, and many foods were so basic as to hardly need a recipe for their preparation.  They were prepared in a simple straightforward manner by the average housewife or servant. 

 

Gingerbread is one of those enduring favorites.  It was made in thin crispy forms resembling cookies and referred to as “snaps” and it was made in a cake or bread-like form which was very similar in flavor, but much lighter in texture.  The method of preparation was based to some extent on the preferences of the family eating it, but more likely on the preferences of the women baking it.

 

John Evelyn included Ginger Bread in his manuscript of cookery receipts penned in the 1640’s.  His receipt is typical in that it is difficult to tell from the title whether it is the cookie-like creation, or flavored sweet bread.  Close inspection of the instructions reveals it to be the former and similar to what would evolve into the ginger-snap. 

 

Take 2 pound of the best flower and 3 quarters of a p[ound] of sweet butter break it small into the flower then put in a pound and halfe of sugar finely beat and two ounces of Ginger  beat and sifted the yolks of 4 Eggs the whites of 2, 3, or 4 spoonfulls of sack and as much Ale yest as will make it into a pretty stiffe past if you have no yest it dos as well with eggs only, 7 or 8 halfe the whites will wett the ingredients work into the past a qr. Of a p[ound] of greene citron as much candyed Orenge cut in small bitts then role it into long roles or round Cakes as you please just as they are going into the Oven wash them over with a feather dipt in the yolk of an egge beaten, so bake them.

 

William Penn’s wife, Gulielma kept a Cookery book while living with her husband in Pennsylvania which was transcribed in 1702.  It contains the following recipe for Ginger Bread.

 

Take 3 pound of treckell * and as much flouer as it will need, mingle with the flouer a ¼ of a pound of beaten ginger, and a qr of Coraway Coriander and Anis seeds, a Littell brused and 3 grated nutmegs ½ a pound of sugar, then make it into a stife past, and beat it with a Rouling pinn, to make it Lite, it must bee baked in tinn pans which must bee a Littell buttered, as sone as thee take it out of the oven just dip it in to scalding hot water, and put it into the oven againe, and Lett it, If thee hast any oring or Lemon peele slice sum very thin in to the treckell 3 or 4 days before thou makest the ginger breed.

 

Mrs. Penn’s receipt will produce a cookie-like product from the addition of flour sufficient to roll it out to a stiff paste.  Like Evelyn’s product it is felt best when flavored with orange or lemon peel, but unlike Evelyn’s Mrs. Penn’s is flavored with treacle, also known as molasses, which gives gingerbread the characteristic flavor we recognize today.  Mrs. Penn’s spelling still has the old English appearance, but has become more in line with current standards. 

 

In addition to the ginger, her product is also flavored with ground caraway, coriander, and anise seeds which may have been, to some extent, a personal preference, and not necessarily indicative of the average recipe of that era.

 

In 1770, Harriott Horry set about keeping a receipt book from her home on a South Carolina low country plantation which is typical of books from that era in its contents.  She offers the following recipe for Very Good Ginger Bread.

 

Take one quart Molasses, 3 quarts Flour, a large spoonful of Butter, 2 ozs. Ginger and  2 ozs. China Orange Peel dried and finely powder’d.  4 Eggs whites and Yolks-half a pound of Sugar and some Allspice.  Mix all these ingredients well together with 2 or 3 spoonfulls of good yeast.  Work it up well and role it out and bake it on tin, first Buttering the sheets.  You may add 2 ozs. Carraway seed finely powder’d.

 

Mrs. Horry’s receipt is similar to Evelyn’s in that she still uses candied orange peel to flavor the gingerbread, and it still uses yeast for leavening along with the eggs.  Her recipe, like Mrs. Penn’s, is flavored with both ginger and allspice, and she offers the option of additional flavoring with ground caraway seeds.  Her product remains cookie-like in texture, and, like Mrs. Penn’s, benefits from the characteristic flavor of molasses.

 

In 1805, a group of ladies in Deerfield, Mass produced a small book of cookery receipts which was reprinted and sold as a fund-raising project in 1897.  Because it was compiled by more than one author it reflects the tastes of all those who contributed, and by the number of recipes for gingerbread it is obvious this was a standard in the kitchen of each of the ladies involved with the project.

 

The gingerbread recipes include Mollie Saunder’s Upper Shelf Gingerbread, Sugar Gingerbread, Cream Gingerbread, Great Grandmother’s Gingerbread, Soft Gingerbread, Buttermilk Gingerbread, and Ginger Snaps. 

 

Between the date of Mrs. Horry’s book and this one we see the inclusion of the familiar term ginger-snap.  Each of the above recipes instructs adding flour until stiff and rolling except for Cream Gingerbread and Soft Gingerbread.  From the amounts of liquid and flour used in these two recipes we see that they were intended to be a softer more cake-like product.

 

The 1841 Good Housekeeper written by Sarah J. Hale contains four recipes for what she terms hard and soft gingerbreads.  For the hard version she instructs working it well, rolling out, and baking on flat pans, and for the soft version she instructs baking in a quick oven half an hour.  In comparing the amount of liquid to dry ingredients it is apparent the latter was a cake-like product.  The hard version contains no molasses, but the soft version does. 

 

Hard Gingerbread – Rub half a pound of butter into a pound of flour; then rub in half a pound of sugar, two table-spoonfuls of ginger, and a spoonful of rose water; work it well; roll out, and bake in flat pans in a moderate oven.  It will take about half an hour to bake.  This gingerbread will keep good some time.

 

The 1858 Inquire Within also contained both hard and soft versions of gingerbread.

 

Gingerbread Snaps.  One pound of flour, half a pound of treacle, half a pound of sugar, quarter of a pound of butter, half an ounce of best prepared ginger, sixteen drops of essence of lemon, potash the size of a nut, dissolved in a table-spoonful of hot water. 

 

To Make Gingerbread Cake.  Take one pound and a half of treacle, one and a half ounces of ground ginger, half an ounce of caraway seeds, two ounces of allspice, four ounces of orange peel, shred fine; half a pound of sweet butter, six ounces blanched almonds, one pound honey, and one and a half ounces carbonate of soda, with as much fine flour as makes a dough of moderate consistence.  Directions for Baking it:  Make a pit in five pounds flour, then pour in the treacle, and all the other ingredients creaming the butter; then mix them all together into a dough.  Work it well, then put in three quarters of an ounce tartaric acid, and put the dough into a buttered pan and bake for two hours in a cool oven.  To know when it is ready, dip a fork into it, and if it comes out sticky put it in the oven again; if not, it is ready.

 

By this time the directions have evolved in style to at least the precursor of what we recognize in today’s cookbooks.  The product is flavored with the characteristic molasses and ginger, and raised with the equivalent of today’s baking powder – potash and carbonate of soda. 

 

Still no specific temperature or time table is given for the baking because this varied from kitchen to kitchen and with the peculiar circumstances pertinent to any given day of preparation – humidity, outdoor temperature, quality and temperature of flour, freshness of the eggs, type of wood used in the fire, etc.   Food preparation through the end of the century depended more on the skill of the cook than in the recording of specific directions because none of these factors were as of yet controllable.

 

For the Civil War soldier, welcome was the box from home containing the almost indestructible ginger snaps.  Some thought the spices in the cakes discouraged insects, and since the ginger-snaps just became harder as they aged, they kept well for extended periods of time.

 

The 1879 recipe for Sponge Ginger-Bread from Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping has the advantage of more detailed instructions in mixing the batter, and more reliable results using baking soda rather than earlier forms of leavening.  The ingredients have evolved into the standards we expect in modern recipes.

 

One cup sour milk, one of Orleans molasses, a half cup butter, two eggs, one teaspoon soda, one table-spoon ginger, flour to make as thick as pound-cake; put butter, molasses and ginger together, make them quite warm, add the milk, flour, eggs and soda, and bake as soon as possible. 

 

The 1900 Picayune’s Creole Cookbook offers cake-like Ginger Bread which is risen using soda and baking powder, sweetened with molasses, and flavored with ginger and cinnamon.  The instructions say to pour the batter into well-greased shallow tins and use a broom straw to test for doneness when baked approximately 40 minutes.  

 

By 1923 another milestone has passed in gingerbread making – the practice of adding coffee to gingerbread batter is evidenced in one of the recipes found in Holland’s Cook Book. 

 

Coffee Gingerbread.  Beat together ½ cupful butter, 1 cupful molasses, 1 egg, 1 teaspoonful ginger, 1 teaspoonful cinnamon and ½ teaspoonful cloves.  Mix and add 1 cupful strong coffee and 2 ½ cupfuls flour sifted with a teaspoonful soda. 

 

For further reading see Victoria’s Home Companion; Or, The Whole Art of Cooking by Victoria Rumble.  The book may be ordered from the blog.  Blissful Meals & Happy Holidays.