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Risen Gingerbread
2 pounds flour. 1 pound nice brown sugar. 1 pound butter. 6 eggs. 1/2 pint molasses. 3 ounces ginger. Bake in a large cake.--Mrs. A.T.
A receipt written for a cook who already knew what "risen" meant and did not need to be told. Everything is by weight, the leavening is unnamed, and the ginger is startling.
- The missing leavening"Risen" gingerbread was usually raised by yeast, though pearlash or saleratus also appear in period gingerbreads; saleratus is the rough equivalent of modern baking soda, pearlash is not. No leavening is listed here at all. As written the batter will bake into a dense, heavy slab; a modern cook needs to supply a leavening, and about 1 tablespoon of baking soda dissolved into the warm molasses is a reasonable starting point.
- Weights into cups2 lb flour is about 7 cups, 1 lb brown sugar about 2 1/4 cups packed, 1 lb butter is four sticks, and 1/2 pint of molasses is 1 cup. The whole thing comes to something over 5 lb of batter.
- Three ounces of gingerThat is close to a full cup of ground ginger, which will taste medicinal today. Ground spice of the period was frequently stale or adulterated, which may explain the quantity. Start at 2 to 3 tablespoons for this quantity of flour and adjust upward.
- "Bake in a large cake"No oven direction is given. For a modern oven, about 325 to 350F, and divide the batter between two 9-inch tube pans or three loaf pans rather than trusting one enormous cake; loaves want 55 to 70 minutes, a tube pan closer to 1 1/4 hours. Test with a skewer at the thickest point.
- Molasses, not blackstrapWest Indian molasses was in common use in this period, though New Orleans molasses was also widespread by 1879. Blackstrap is markedly more bitter; use ordinary unsulphured dark molasses.
- Method, since none is givenCream the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs, then the molasses, then the flour sifted with the ginger. If you are using soda, add it to the molasses last and get the batter into the pans promptly.
- YieldTwo tube cakes or three loaves, 30 to 40 servings. Halve everything for a household that is not feeding a farm.
Housekeeping in Old Virginia (1879), compiled by Marion Cabell Tyree, is a book of contributed receipts, and initialled attributions like this one are common throughout it -- a set of weights and a name were evidently thought sufficient instruction for its readers. "Risen" most likely distinguishes a yeast-leavened gingerbread from the soft, quick sort raised with saleratus, though by 1879 chemical leaveners were long established rather than newly arrived. Gingerbread in this quantity keeps well, the molasses and the butter-and-egg richness holding it moist for days -- useful for the constant informal hospitality that a book like this exists to describe. The very heavy hand with ginger may reflect ground spice that had lost strength before it reached the bowl.