[Sca-cooks] Recipe for period gingerbrede

[David Friedman]

>i am liking this.  how fine should the breadcrumbs be?

My recipe is quite different from the one Devra 
posted, partly because I am using the 14th c. 
version from (Curye) which, unlike the 15th c. 
version in _Two Fifteenth Century_ contains 
ginger (!), and partly because I don't think the 
redaction that Devra used is very close to the 
original it is based on. I use ordinary 
commercial bread crumbs. My recipe (from the 
Miscellany):

Gingerbrede
Curye on Inglysch p. 154 (Goud Kokery no. 18) (GOOD)

To make gingerbrede. Take goode honey & clarifie 
it on þe fere, & take fayre paynemayn or wastel 
brede & grate it, & caste it into þe boylenge 
hony, & stere it well togyder faste with a sklyse 
þat it bren not to þe vessell. & þanne take it 
doun and put þerin ginger, longe pepper & 
saundres, & tempere it vp with þin handes; & than 
put hem to a flatt boyste & strawe þeron suger, & 
pick þerin clowes rounde aboute by þe egge and in 
þe mydes, yf it plece you, &c.

1 c honey	1/4 t long pepper	30-40 whole cloves (~ 1 t)
1 1/4 c breadcrumbs	1/4 t saunders	(or 5 t sugar, pinch powdered cloves)
1 t ginger	1 T sugar

Bring honey to a boil, simmer two or three 
minute, stir in breadcrumbs with a spatula until 
uniformly mixed. Remove from heat, stir in 
ginger, pepper, and saunders. (If you can't get 
long pepper, substitute ordinary black pepper.) 
When it is cool enough to handle, knead it to get 
spices thoroughly mixed. Put it in a box, cookie 
tin, or the like, squish it flat and thin, 
sprinkle with sugar and put cloves ornamentally 
around the edge. Leave it to let the clove flavor 
sink in; do not eat the cloves.

An alternative way of doing it is to roll into 
small balls, roll in sugar mixed with a pinch of 
cloves, then flatten them a little to avoid 
confusion with hais. This is suitable if you are 
making them today and eating them tomorrow.

The 15th c. recipe (replacing thorns with th--the 
"jif" in the last line actually has an initial 
letter sort of like a z whose name I have 
forgotten):

Gyngerbrede. - Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene ;
take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw ] ther-on ; take gratyd Brede, & make it so
hargeaunt  that it wol be y-lechyd; then take pouder Canelle, & straw ther-on
y-now; then make yt  square, lyke as thou wolt lecbe yt; take when thou
lechyst hyt, an caste Box leves a-bouyn, y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys. And
jif thou wolt baue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now.

-- 
David/Cariadoc
www.daviddfriedman.com