Ginger Loaf
6 eggs. 4 cupfuls molasses. 2 cupfuls of butter. 6 cupfuls flour. 1 teaspoonful soda. 1 tablespoonful ginger. Cinnamon to your taste.--Mrs. P.W.
A bare list of proportions in the style of most contributions to this book, written for a cook who already knew how gingerbread behaved. Two things need attention before you start: the batch is enormous, and the leavening is far short of what four cupfuls of molasses want.
- Scale it downAs written this is a very large batter, well over five pounds, enough for three or more loaf pans. Halving is straightforward; quartering leaves awkward fractions of eggs, soda and ginger.
- Soda and molassesOne teaspoon of soda for four cups of molasses is very light by modern reckoning; a common modern rule of thumb is about a teaspoon per cup of molasses, to neutralise its acidity and give lift. With the original quantity expect a dense, dark, almost pudding-like loaf rather than a springy cake. By that reckoning 3 to 4 teaspoons would suit the full batch.
- MolassesHousehold baking molasses of the period was probably closer to today's dark, unsulphured cooking molasses than to blackstrap, which is bitter and will overwhelm the ginger. Avoid "robust" or blackstrap unless you want that edge.
- ButterTwo cupfuls is a pound. Soften it and cream it with the molasses and eggs rather than melting it, or the batter separates as it stands.
- Ginger and cinnamonA tablespoon of dried ginger in six cups of flour is modest for a gingerbread of this size; a heaping tablespoon, or two, is not out of character. "Cinnamon to your taste" leaves the amount to the cook; cloves or allspice were a common addition in gingerbreads of the period.
- OvenBake at 325F. Molasses batters scorch on top before the middle sets, so a lower, longer bake is right: about 50 to 70 minutes for a standard 9x5 loaf, until a skewer comes out clean and the top springs back.
- PansLine the pans with parchment or grease and flour them thoroughly. This batter sticks badly, and a loaf this heavy tears if it resists the tin.
- KeepingGingerbread of this sort improves after a day, wrapped tight. The molasses holds moisture and the spice settles; it will keep a week at room temperature and freezes well.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, is a collection of contributions from named Virginia housekeepers, which is why the recipe ends with initials rather than instructions: Mrs. P.W. was supplying her proportions to peers who needed no more. Molasses gingerbread was one of the great workhorses of nineteenth-century American baking, because molasses was cheap, shipped well and kept indefinitely while refined sugar was dear. The pairing with soda was chemistry as much as flavour, molasses being acid enough to activate it, and the loaf form, as opposed to the rolled and cut soft gingerbread or the thin crisp cakes, made it a keeping cake for the sideboard rather than something baked for a single meal. Ginger itself had been in the Anglo-American baking repertoire for centuries by then, long enough that "gingerbread" had stopped meaning anything precise and covered everything from spiced biscuits to a rich dark cake like this one.