Icings
GINGER BREAD No. I Two-thirds of a cup of brown sugar One egg One cup of molasses One-half cup of shortening Four cups of flour One cup of sour milk Two teaspoons of Larkin Soda One teaspoon of Larkin Ginger One teaspoon of Larkin Cinnamon GINGER BREAD No. 2 One-fourth cup of melted butter One egg One cup of molasses Two and one-third cups of flour Two teaspoons of Larkin Soda Two teaspoons of Larkin Ginger One cup of sour milk One-half teaspoon of Larkin Table Salt
Both versions are given as ingredient lists only, with no mixing method, pan size, temperature or time — the assumption being that any cook of the period already knew how gingerbread went together. Here is what has to be supplied.
- The missing methodStandard practice for a molasses cake of this type: beat the shortening or melted butter with the sugar, add the egg, then the molasses, then the flour and spices alternately with the sour milk, with the soda dissolved in the milk last. Mix only until combined; overworking a soda batter costs you the rise.
- Oven and panBake at 350F. No. 1 fills a 9x13-inch pan and takes roughly 30-35 minutes; the smaller No. 2 suits an 8-inch square pan at about 25-30 minutes. Test with a skewer in the centre.
- "Larkin" ingredientsLarkin Soda is simply baking soda, Larkin Ginger and Cinnamon are ground ginger and cinnamon, Larkin Table Salt is table salt. The brand names are there because the book was a premium given away with Larkin Company mail-order purchases.
- Sour milkThis means naturally soured raw milk, which today's pasteurised milk will not reliably produce. Use buttermilk cup for cup, or a cup of milk with a tablespoon of lemon juice or vinegar stirred in and left five minutes. The acid is what the soda reacts with, so it is not optional.
- MolassesUse unsulphured dark molasses, not blackstrap, which is far more bitter than ordinary baking molasses, and not sorghum unless you want its distinct tang.
- Two teaspoons of sodaThat is generous by modern standards, and both recipes rely on the acid in the molasses as well as the sour milk to neutralise it. Level the spoons; heaping them gives a soapy, faintly metallic aftertaste and a coarse crumb.
- Flour measureA period cup of flour is usually reckoned at roughly 4 oz / 115 g. No. 1's four cups is a stiff, bready gingerbread; No. 2 at two and one-third cups is softer and more cake-like.
- SaltNo. 1 omits salt entirely. Add half a teaspoon; without it the spices read flat.
- ShorteningAt this period the word could mean lard, butter, or a vegetable compound. Butter gives the best flavour here; lard gives the tenderest crumb.
Gingerbread of this kind — molasses-sweetened, soda-risen, baked in a sheet and cut in squares — was an everyday American cake of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, molasses being cheaper than sugar. Its appearance in a Larkin book is unsurprising: these collections were promotional, distributed by the Larkin Company of Buffalo, New York, whose soap-and-premium mail-order business named its own soda, spices and salt in the recipes.