SC - Feast Themes/gingerbread

[Margritte]

>Margritte, parchment is a type of "paper" that is relatively burn proof, and
>is frequently used in baking.

OK, next silly question: where do I get it?

>  	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

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