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Ginger Cakes (Teacup of butter teacup brown)
1 teacup of butter. 1 teacup brown sugar. 1 teacup sour milk. 7 cupfuls flour. 11/2 teacup molasses. 1½ teaspoonfuls soda.--Mrs. C. B.
A bare ingredient list in the shorthand of a cook who already knew what to do with it. Two things need saying before anything else: there is no ginger in the ginger cakes, and there is no method, oven or time at all.
- The missing gingerThe name promises a spice the list does not contain, whether by oversight or because the contributor thought it went without saying. A dough of this size would want 1 to 2 tablespoons of ground ginger, often with a teaspoon of cinnamon alongside.
- What a teacup holdsA nineteenth-century teacup is smaller than a modern mug; it is commonly reckoned at about 6 fluid ounces, or three-quarters of a cup, though actual cups varied. The proportions matter more than the absolute size here, so pick one vessel and use it for the butter, sugar, milk and molasses alike.
- Cupfuls versus teacupfulsNote that the flour is given in "cupfuls" while everything else is in teacups. Whether Mrs. C. B. meant a different, larger measure for the flour is genuinely unclear. Seven full 8-ounce cups against two and a half teacups of liquid gives a very stiff dough.
- Sour milkThis means naturally soured raw milk, which no longer exists in a supermarket. Buttermilk is the standard substitute, cup for cup; milk soured with a tablespoon of vinegar per cup also works and reacts with the soda the same way.
- Soda, not baking powderThe soda is there to be neutralised by the acid in the sour milk and the molasses. Do not substitute baking powder one for one, and sift the soda through the flour rather than dumping it in, or the cakes will carry dark bitter streaks.
- These are rolled cakesWith that much flour this is not a batter but a soft, rollable dough, the kind cut into rounds and baked flat. Chill it, roll about a quarter inch thick, and cut with a tumbler if you want the period shape.
- OvenNo temperature or time is given. Around 350F for 10 to 12 minutes suits this dough; molasses and brown sugar scorch quickly, so pull them while the centres still feel soft.
- YieldSeven cups of flour is a large batch by modern standards, producing several dozen cakes of about two and a half inches. The dough halves cleanly if that is more than you want.
Ginger cakes of this kind were the everyday sweet of the Southern household kitchen rather than a company dish: molasses instead of white sugar, no eggs or cream, and a dough stiff enough to be rolled, cut and baked in quantity. Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879) was assembled by Marion Cabell Tyree from contributions by named and initialled Virginia housewives, which is why the page ends with "Mrs. C. B." and why the instructions are so thin -- the book was written by cooks for cooks who had learned at someone's elbow and needed only the proportions reminding. Ginger itself came cheap through the West Indies trade alongside the molasses it is nearly always paired with.