[Sca-cooks] Recipe for period gingerbrede

[David Friedman]

>Period Gingerbrede, derived from Ruth Frey's redaction out of The 
>Two Fifteenth Century Cookbooks
>
>
>
>I actually put in a lot more spice than Ruth did, due to a 
>miscalculation of how much honey I had on hand...
>
>
>
>Ingredients
>
>2 C honey (I mixed dark and light - remember it is much denser than 
>water; be sure you have enough before putting in spices)
>
>2 t cinnamon
>
>1 t ginger
>
>.5 t ground long pepper or black pepper
>
>.25 t ground cloves
>
>3-5 threads saffron
>
>4 C dry bread crumbs
>
>
>
>Topping
>
>mixed cinnamon and sugar
>
>some bay leaves
>
>
>
>Method
>
>1. Bring spices and honey to a boil in a good-sized pot.
>
>2. Turn off heat and stir in crumbs a cup at a time.
>
>3. Spread mix on large rectangle of waxed paper. Top with a similar 
>piece, and roll to approximately .25 inch thickness.
>
>4. Remove top piece of paper, sprinkle with cinnamon/sugar mix, and 
>scroe with sharp knife into 1 inch squares.
>
>5. When cool enough to handle, cut or break squares apart and 
>completely cool on a cookie rack. You may want to turn pieces to dry 
>on both sides.
>
>6. Line a covered, tight cookie can with waxed paper, and place 
>gingerbred therein, sprinkling each layer as you fill with more 
>cinnamon/sugar, and placing 1 or 2 bay leaves on top. Put more waxed 
>paper and continue to layer.
>
>7. Let cookies stand at least a week in a moderately cool room, so 
>that the crumbs can absorb moisture from the honey.
>
>
>
>The cookies will vary in texture depending on how hard a boil you 
>bring the honey to. Boiling more than a few seconds may result in 
>tooth-breakers, or bricks that smell very good.
>
>
>
>Yu can also make the stuff into small balls and roll in sugar, or 
>use cookie cutters dipped into sugar before cutting out.? This is a 
>nice thing to do with small children - an adult handles heating the 
>honey, and then the kids can take turns stirring in the crumbs, 
>rolling, cutting, etc.
>
>
>Devra the Baker

1. The fifteenth century gingerbrede is clearly a corrupt version of 
the 14th century recipe. The earlier recipe is blissfully saffron 
free. Also, unlike the fifteenth century one, it contains ginger.

2. More seriously ...  . The fact that the box which the gingerbrede 
is put into in the 14th century recipe has been replaced by box 
leaves (not bay leaves, incidentally) in the 15th century does 
suggest the possibility of scribal error.

3. My copy of _Two Fifteenth Century Cookery Books_ is hiding, but I 
found it online. The recipe this is based on is on page 35. Neither 
the rolling out thin nor the letting it stand for a week is there. 
It's being formed square and then sliced ["then make yt square, lyke 
as thou wolt leche yt; take when thou
lechyst hyt"]. Nor is there any suggestion of cutting it into one 
inch squares--just forming the whole thing up square before cutting. 
Nor is there any ginger in the original recipe (but there is in the 
14th c. one I use). And the recipe ends by suggesting the use of 
saunders to color it red as an option.

I suspect the redactor (Ruth Frey, not you) is starting out with the 
idea that they are supposed to be cookies and modifying the original 
accordingly. The text only says to make it stiff enough so that you 
can cut it.

Or in other words, I don't think what this produces would have much 
similarity to what the original recipe it is working from would 
produce, quite aside from my preference for the 14th c. over the 15th 
c. version of the recipe. Boiling for well over a few seconds using 
the 14th c. recipe, which isn't that different from the 15th c. aside 
from the spicing, produces a product with a texture like fudge, not 
toothbreakers or bricks.
-- 
David Friedman
www.daviddfriedman.com
daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/