gingerbread-msg - 6/15/04
Medieval gingerbread. Recipes. Not like modern gingerbread cake.
NOTE: See also the files: desserts-msg, gilded-food-msg, candy-msg,
cookies-msg, honey-msg, sugar-msg, sotelties-msg.
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From: Margritte <margritt at mindspring.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 15:31:21 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
>Lady Margritte may grace us with the exact recipe. She makes a
>WONDERFUL period gingerbread :o)
The dark gingerbread (see below) is the one I made for fra nic's
feast. I also entered 2 types of gingerbread in the most recent Kingdom A&S
competition. The documentation appears below. As nic said, the dark
gingerbread is wonderful (if I do say so myself :-). The fine gingerbread
was a disappointment. I made it several times before I came up with
something edible. I tried both wax paper and foil, and it stuck to both of
them, to the point that I couldn't pull it off. What should I have used
instead? The redaction says "kitchen parchment". What is it?
- -Margritte
The History of Gingerbread
Modern gingerbread uses flour as a thickener, but in the Middle
Ages, either bread crumbs or ground almonds would have been used.
Gingerbread made with bread crumbs was considered "coarse" gingerbread. The
crumbs were usually mixed with honey and spices, with either sandalwood or
red wine to make the mixture red.
Gingerbread was one of the most popular confections of the Middle
Ages. It was often sold at fairs, molded into gingerbread men. Likewise, it
was also served at nobles' high tables, carefully sculpted and gilded with
real gold.
White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread)
Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and redaction:
To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a quarter
of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of the powder of
refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with dragagant steept in
rose-water, then roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds: dry
them in an oven when the breade is drawne foorth, upon white papers, & when
they be very dry, box them, and keepe them all the year. (From John
Murrell, A Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen).
Redaction:
1/2 pound almond paste
2 tbsp rose water
1 tsp gum arabic
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tbsp ground ginger
Rub the almond paste throught the medium holes of a grater into a
mixing bowl. Put the rose water into a saucer, add the gum arabic, and stir
until the gum disolves. Sift the sugar with the ginger, stir in the
dissolved gum arabic, and mix until well blended. Add this to the almond
paste and work it in quickly but thoroughly.
Divide the paste into twenty-four pieces. Roll each piece into a
ball, flatten it to 1/4 inch thick, and print a design on the top with one
of the small ceramic or wood molds used for printing individual servings of
butter, or make criss-cross patterns with a fork.
Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of rice paper or kitchen
parchment and place the cakes on it. Bake at 200=B0 for twenty minutes, then
turn off the heat and let the cakes cool in the oven for fifteen minutes.
Remove the cakes from the paper and finish cooling on a wire grill. Store
in single layers in an airtight container.
When I made this recipe, I used small linoleum blocks to print
designs in the tops of the cookies. The biggest problem was the gingerbread
sticking to any surface it was cooked on.
This same book also mentions an ordinary or "coarse" gingerbread,
made from grated bread crumbs with spices, and held together by wine or
clarified honey, although it does not give a recipe.
Dark Gingerbread (Coarse Gingerbread)
The Tudor Kitchen Cookery Book give the following recipe for "Gyngerbrede".
Their source is T. Austin: Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books, 1888.
Take a quart of honey and sethe it and skime it clene; take Safroun, pouder
Pepir and throw theron; take gratyd Brede and make it so chargeant that it
wol be y-lechyd; then take pouder canelle and straw ther-on y-now; then
make it square, lyke as thou wolt leche yt; take when tho lechyst hyt, an
caste Box leves a -bowyn, y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys. An if thou wold have
it Red, colour it with Saunderys y-now.
Redaction from the above book:
1 lb. Clear honey
1 lb. Fresh white bread crumbs
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground black pepper
fresh box leaves and whole cloves to decorate
1. Warm the honey until quite runny (modern honey does not give off a scum
so needs no cleaning). Pour into a large bowl and mix in the breadcrumbs
and spices. It should be very stiff, if not add a few more breadcrumbs. If
you wish to follow the Tudor example and colour the mixture red, then add a
few drops of red food colouring or powder to the honey before mixing.
2. Line a shallow rectangular cake tin (or gingerbread tin) with non-stick
paper or foil and press the mixture into it. If it is a little difficult to
do this, then press down with your fingers dipped occasionally in cold
water.
3. Ensure the top is quite level, allow to firm up in the fridge for an
hour or two then turn out onto another sheet of paper and cut into small
squares.
4. Stick two small box leaves into each square with a whole clove in the
centre.
5. For a better effect, divide the mixture in two and colour one half red,
then make two lots of squares and arrange them alternately on a large
plate, chequerboard style.
The above is the recipe I used as a basis for my gingerbread with a
few modi-fications. First of all, I added the spices to the honey before I
added the breadcrumbs, so that the spices would be well-distributed. I used
food color to redden it just slightly. To flatten the mixture, I rolled it
with a rolling pin between two pieces of wax paper.
I also found out something very important about this recipe-- The
first time I rolled out the mixture, it never set properly because it was
too moist. Several days later, I gave up and plopped the whole mess back
into the sauce pan, re-heated it, and added more breadcrumbs. It worked
like a charm.
Another similar recipe comes from Curye on Inglyessch, p. 154 (Goud Kokery
no. 18), as quoted on Cariadoc's web page:
(http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/miscellany.html)
To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie it on the fere, & take
fayre paynemayn or wastel brede & grate it, & caste it into the boylenge
hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse that it bren not to the
vessell. & thanne take it doun and put therin ginger, longe pepper &
saundres, & tempere it vp with thin handes; & than put hem to a flatt
boyste & strawe theron suger, & pick therin clowes rounde aboute by the
egge and in the mydes, yf it plece you, &c.
One final recipe for coarse gingerbread comes from Gervase Markham's "The
English Hous-wife" (1615), as quoted in To The Queen's Taste:
Take a quart of Honey clarified, and seeth it till it be brown, and if it
be thick, put it to a dish of water: then take fine crumbs of white bread
grated, and put to it, and stirre it well, and when it is almost cold, put
to it the powder of Ginger, Cloves, Cinnamon, and a little Licoras and
Anniseeds: then knead it, and put it into a mould and print it. Some use to
put to it also a little Pepper, but that is according unto taste and
pleasure.
Bibliography
The Tudor Kitchen Cookery Book, Recipes adapted for modern use by Roz Denny,
Dining With William Shakespeare, by Madge Lorwin; Atheneum, New York, 1976.
To The Queen's Taste: Elizabethan Feasts and Recipes Adapted for Modern
Cooking, by Lorna J. Sass; the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A History of Food, by Maguelonne Toussaint-Samat, translated from the
=46rench by Anthea Bell, a Blackwell Reference book.
The Complete Book of Gingerbread, by Valerie Barrett; Chartwell Books, Inc.
Gingerbread: Ninety-Nine Delicious Recipes from Sweet to Savory, by Linda
Merinoff, a Fireside book published by Simon and Schuster, Inc. New York,
London, Toronto, Sydney, and Tokyo.
From: Mark Schuldenfrei <schuldy at abel.MATH.HARVARD.EDU>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 15:46:33 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
I tried both wax paper and foil, and it stuck to both of
them, to the point that I couldn't pull it off. What should I have used
instead? The redaction says "kitchen parchment". What is it?
Margritte, parchment is a type of "paper" that is relatively burn proof, and
is frequently used in baking. (For example, baked fish or chicken in
parchment, with herbs, are WONDEROUS).
The solution (I expect: and have used) is to grease the paper heavily.
Modern gingerbread uses flour as a thickener, but in the Middle
Ages, either bread crumbs or ground almonds would have been used.
Hmmm. Just to nitpick for a second, I would not say that modern gingerbread
uses flour as a thickener... it is used as an ingredient, including the
steps where it forms gluten, and makes a rising dough.
Gingerbread was one of the most popular confections of the Middle
Ages. It was often sold at fairs, molded into gingerbread men. Likewise, it
was also served at nobles' high tables, carefully sculpted and gilded with
real gold.
Not doubting you in the slightest, but source, please? I'd like to know
more.
I've found that coarse gingerbread (in the medieval fashion) is a "pick it
up and work it with your hands" kind of material. Dust them with
confectioners sugar.
This is probably a good time to remind people that modern confectioners
sugar is adulterated with non-period ingredients, generally.
Tibor
From: Philip & Susan Troy <troy at asan.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 17:42:57 -0400
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
Mark Schuldenfrei wrote:
> This is probably a good time to remind people that modern confectioners
> sugar is adulterated with non-period ingredients, generally.
>
> Tibor
To wit, cornstarch. Seems as if the modern dusting with confectioners'
sugar as a sort of lubricant would have been done with an oiled marble
stone and wet hands, in period. Partly this would have been because it
was very difficult to make fine powdered sugar by hand. I speak with the
authority of one who made about two pounds of marzipan in a big stone
mortar at a demo a few weeks ago, using whole blanched almonds and a
block of sugar.
Adamantius
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Thu, 19 Jun 1997 20:11:44 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
At 3:31 PM -0500 6/19/97, Margritte wrote:
>but in the Middle
>Ages, either bread crumbs or ground almonds would have been used.
The almond recipe given below is either 16th of 17th century (anyone know
the exact date of Murrell), not medieval. Does anyone know of any medieval
recipes using almonds instead of breadcrumbs? There is another gingerbread
in the medieval sources, but it is not anything like the recipe given
below--basically cooked honey plus spices, apparently used as a confection
or as an ingredient in other things.
So it looks, absent further evidence, as though the "coarse" and "fine"
gingerbread, if that is what they were called, were not medieval
contemporaries but a Medieval dish and a Renaissance dish, with the
medieval dish surviving (as per the Markham recipe) into the Renaissance..
>White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread)
>
>Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and redaction:
>
>To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a quarter
>of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of the powder of
>refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with dragagant steept in
>rose-water, then roule it in round cakes and print it with your moulds: dry
>them in an oven when the breade is drawne foorth, upon white papers, & when
>they be very dry, box them, and keepe them all the year. (From John
>Murrell, A Delightfull daily exercise for Ladies and Gentlewomen).
>
>Redaction:
>1/2 pound almond paste
>2 tbsp rose water
>1 tsp gum arabic
>1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
>1 tbsp ground ginger
Note that the original has quantities--and the "redaction" ignores them.
Based on the almond paste, this is supposed to be one full recipe. But it
has converted a quarter of a pound of ginger into a tablespoon(!!!) and a
cup (half a pound) of sugar into half a cup.
With regard to the dark gingerbread, which has been one of my standards for
many years, since it is easy to make, popular, and keeps, I normally bring
the honey to a boil, as per the original ("sethe it"), then stir in the
bread crumbs and the spices, and when it is cool enough to handle knead it
to a smooth texture by hand.
David/Cariadoc
From: alysk at ix.netcom.com (Elise Fleming )
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 07:55:05 -0500 (CDT)
Subject: SC - White Gingerbread, Gums Tragacanth & Arabic
It was written:
>White Gingerbread (Fine Gingerbread)
>Dining With William Shakespeare gives the following recipe and
>redaction:
>To Make White Gingerbread: Take halfe a pound of marchpaine past, a
>quarter of a pound of white Ginger beaten and cerst, halfe a pound of
>the powder of refined sugar, beate this to a very fine paste with
>dragagant steept in rose-water (much snippage)
^^^^^^^^^
>Redaction:
>1/2 pound almond paste
>2 tbsp rose water
>1 tsp gum arabic (much snippage)
^^^^^^^^^^
Gum tragacanth (dragagant, dragon) and gum arabic are NOT the same
thing and don't necessarily _do_ the same thing in a recipe.
Tragacanth is a binder and strengthener, especially used in sugar
paste. Replacing tragacanth with arabic might lead to some of the
problems experienced. Also, note that while this recipe is called
"gingerbread" it is almond based, not bread based. It's a delicious
recipe, but not the same thing as gingerbread as one would expect
gingerbread to be.
>Cover a cookie sheet with a piece of rice paper or kitchen
>parchment and place the cakes on it.
Interesting difference. You can eat the rice paper but you can't eat
the kitchen parchment.
I don't recall having sticking problems when I did the recipe but there
were several probable differences. I don't use commercial almond paste
(too sweet) and made my own. Also the tragacath versus arabic
difference. I did bake them on parchment paper and "printed" them.
Alys Katharine
From: Margritte <margritt at mindspring.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 20:42:57 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
> Gingerbread was one of the most popular confections of the Middle
> Ages. It was often sold at fairs, molded into gingerbread men. Likewise, it
> was also served at nobles' high tables, carefully sculpted and gilded with
> real gold.
>
>Not doubting you in the slightest, but source, please? I'd like to know
>more.
That information is actually distilled from several sources, but most of
the books I used are already back at the library (see bibliography at the
end of my previous post). I was able to dig up some of my xeroxes, though.
From _The Complete Book of Gingerbread_, by Valerie Barrett, pp 16-17:
"The medieval version of gingerbread would be unrecognizable today.
Bread crumbs tossed with honey and spices were dried out or baked into
hard, crumbly, flat cakes. Some of the cakes were pressed into molds to
form beautiful and elaborate pictures. Gingerbread men, called gingerbread
husbands, became popular in northern Britain. Considered a gift fit for a
king, or an appropriate ending to a great banquet, huge slabs of
gingerbread were gilded with real gold and studded decoratively with
gold-dipped cloves. Dark gingerbreads got their reddish-brown color from
sandalwood or red wine, while white gingerbread was actually
ginger-flavored marzipan."
The other books made similar comments, but I don't have them in front of me
right now.
- -Margritte
From: david friedman <ddfr at best.com>
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 1997 23:40:59 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
At 8:42 PM -0500 6/20/97, Margritte wrote:
>That information is actually distilled from several sources, but most of
>the books I used are already back at the library (see bibliography at the
>end of my previous post). I was able to dig up some of my xeroxes, though.
>
>>From _The Complete Book of Gingerbread_, by Valerie Barrett, pp 16-17:
> "The medieval version of gingerbread would be unrecognizable today.
>Bread crumbs tossed with honey and spices were dried out or baked into
>hard, crumbly, flat cakes.
That passage doesn't give me much confidence in the secondary source. I
can't prove that what she describes wasn't made, but the standard recipe in
the English 14th and 15th c. sources doesn't fit either of her
descriptions--it wasn't "dried out," it wasn't "tossed with," and it wasn't
baked.
>"while white gingerbread was actually
>ginger-flavored marzipan."
Has anyone found any medieval recipes that fit this description--as opposed
to 16th or 17th century ones?
Do you remember if she says what her sources were?
David/Cariadoc
From: gfrose at cotton.vislab.olemiss.edu (Terry Nutter)
Date: Sat, 21 Jun 1997 14:33:39 -0500
Subject: Re: SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread
Hi, Katerine here. Cariadoc responds to Magritte:
>>>From _The Complete Book of Gingerbread_, by Valerie Barrett, pp 16-17:
>> "The medieval version of gingerbread would be unrecognizable today.
>>Bread crumbs tossed with honey and spices were dried out or baked into
>>hard, crumbly, flat cakes.
>
>That passage doesn't give me much confidence in the secondary source. I
>can't prove that what she describes wasn't made, but the standard recipe in
>the English 14th and 15th c. sources doesn't fit either of her
>descriptions--it wasn't "dried out," it wasn't "tossed with," and it wasn't
>baked.