Gingerbread, White
INGREDIENTS.-1 3/4 lb. of flour, 1/2 lb. of butter, 1/2 lb. of loaf sugar, the rind of 1 lemon, 1 oz. of ground ginger, 1 nutmeg grated, 1/2 teaspoonful of carbonate of soda, 1 gill of milk. AVERAGE COST, 1s. 3d.
Rub the butter into the flour; add the sugar, which should be finely pounded and sifted, and the minced lemon-rind, ginger and nutmeg. Mix these well together; make the milk just warm, stir in the soda, and work the whole into a nice smooth paste; roll it out, cut it into cakes, and GLAZE. bake in a moderate oven from 15 to 20 minutes.
TIME.-15 to 20 minutes.
SEASONABLE at any time. meats.) - INGREDIENTS for about 3 lbs. of Gingerbread-Nuts. (Rich Sweetnuts.-1 lb. of treacle, ib. of clarified butter, 1 lb. of coarse brown sugar, 2 3/4 oz. of ground ginger, 1 oz. of candied orange-peel, 1 oz. of candied angelica, 1/2 oz. of candied lemon-peel, 1/2 oz. of coriander seeds, 1/2 oz. of 1s. 4d. caraway seeds, 1 egg; flour. AVERAGE COST, Put the treacle into a basin, and pour the sugar, and ginger. Stir these ingreover it the butter, melted SO as not to oil, to oil , dients well together, and whilst mixing, add the candied peel, which should be cut into very small pieces, but not bruised, and the caraway and coriander seeds, which should be pounded. Having mixed all thoroughly together, break in an egg, and work the whole up with as much fine flour as may be necessary to form a paste. Roll this out and stamp into nuts of any size, and put them on a tin plate, and bake in a slow oven from 1/4 to 1/2 hour.
TIME. to hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Gingerbread - Nuts, Sunderland. (An Excellent Recipe.) - INGREDIENTS for 5 lbs. of nuts.-1 lb. of treacle, 1 lb. of moist sugar, 1 lb. of butter, 2 lbs. of flour, 1½ oz. of ground ginger, 1½ oz. of allspice, 1½ oz. of coriander seeds. AVERAGE Cost, 2s. 6d.
Let the allspice, coriander seeds and ginger be freshly ground; put them into a basin, with the flour and sugar, and mix these ingredients well together; warm the treacle and butter together; then with a spoon work it into the flour, &c., until the whole forms a nice smooth paste. Drop the mixture from the spoon on a piece of buttered paper, and bake in rather a slow oven from 20 minutes to 1/2 hour. A little candied lemon-peel mixed with the above is an improvement, and a great authority in culinary matters suggests the addition of a little cayenne pepper in gingerbread.
Whether it be advisable to use the latter ingredient or not, we leave our readers to decide.
TIME.-20 minutes to 1/2 hour.
SEASONABLE at any time.
Glaze (for covering Cold Hams, Tongues, &c.) - INGREDIENTS. - Stock, Asparagus.
Artichokes.
Stuffed Tomatoes:
Brussels Sprouts.
Vegetable-Fritters.
Salad.
Salad in Jelly.
Russian Salad.
Spanish- Onions.
VEGETABLES.
Sea Kale.
Spinach & Eggs.
Baked Potatoes.
Cauliflowers.
Potato-Croquettes.
GLAZE-KETTLE. doubling the quantity of meat in the recipes.
We may remark at the outset that, unless glaze is wanted in very large quantities, it is seldom made expressly. Either of the stocks, boiled down and reduced very considerably, will be found to produce a very good glaze. Put the stock into a stewpan, over a nice clear fire; let it boil till it becomes somewhat stiff, when keep stirring, to prevent its burning. The moment it is sufficiently reduced, and come to a glaze, turn it into the glaze-pot before it gets cold. As, however, this not to be found in every establishment, a white earthenware jar would answer the purpose; and this may be placed in a vessel of boiling water, to melt the glaze when required. It should never be warmed in a saucepan, except on the principle of the bain marie, lest it it should reduce too much, and become black and bitter. If the glaze is wanted of a pale colour, more veal than beef should be used in making the stock; and it is as well to omit turnips and celery, as these impart a disagreeable bitter flavour. Glaze can be bought ready made, thus saving much time and trouble in small kitchens.
This is the pale, biscuit-like gingerbread made with sugar rather than treacle — closer to a spiced shortbread than to a sticky loaf. The quantities work out to a stiff rubbed-in paste that is rolled and cut.
- The hinge: keep it a paste, not a doughRub the butter in as for shortcrust and add only enough of the milk to bring it together. Worked too long or too wet it spreads in the oven and loses the crisp, short bite that makes a white gingerbread white.
- A gillAn imperial gill is 5 fl oz, a generous half cup. Add it a little at a time; flour absorbency varies and you may not need all of it.
- Loaf sugarSugar sold in hard cones, broken up and pounded by the cook. Caster sugar is the direct modern equivalent — no need to pound or sift anything.
- Carbonate of sodaBicarbonate of soda, sold as baking soda. There is no acid in the mixture, so the lift is slight and the soda mainly encourages browning and tenderness. Half a teaspoon to a pound of flour is deliberate restraint; more will taste soapy.
- Moderate ovenThe book gives no temperatures; 'moderate' is usually read today as about 350F / 175C. At 15 to 20 minutes the cakes should be set and barely coloured at the edges — they crisp as they cool, so pull them before they take on much colour.
- A whole grated nutmegThat is a lot by modern taste, roughly two teaspoons of freshly grated nutmeg. Half a nutmeg gives a spicing most palates today will find better balanced against the ounce of ginger.
- Lemon rind"Minced" means pared thinly with no white pith, then chopped very fine. A microplane zest does the same job and distributes better through a dry paste.
- YieldA pound of flour with this much butter and sugar should give somewhere around 40 to 50 small rolled cakes, depending on your cutter. Being dry and crisp, they keep well in a tin.
Victorian kitchens divided gingerbread into two families: the dark treacle sort, and "white" gingerbread sweetened with refined loaf sugar. The ancestor of both is the medieval gingerbread of breadcrumbs, honey and spice, but by Mrs Beeton's day the word had settled onto baked flour goods and the spice merchant's ginger, nutmeg and coriander were staples of the grocery trade rather than luxuries. The average cost of 1s 3d given here is typical of the book's habit of pricing every dish, part of its address to the mistress of a household expected to keep account of the kitchen.