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Gingerbread
1/2 cup molasses 1/2 cup sugar 1/2 cup melted fat 1/2 cup sour milk 1 egg 1/2 teaspoon soda 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon ginger 2 teaspoons cinnamon Nutmeg Mix ingredients in order given, sifting the soda with the flour before adding it. Bake in a slow oven in a greased shallow pan or in muffin-tins. Care must be taken to prevent burning.
Gingerbread makes a delicious dessert served with whipped cream.
A soft, molasses-and-sour-milk gingerbread of the kind baked in a shallow pan and cut in squares, or dropped into muffin-tins. A few of the period conventions need translating.
- "Slow oven"Read this as roughly 300-325F. Molasses batters brown fast at the edges and can taste scorched before the center sets, which is exactly the burning the recipe warns against.
- The flour quantity looks shortWith a half cup each of molasses, sugar, fat and sour milk plus an egg, one cup of flour gives a very thin batter, and may well be a misprint. You will probably need considerably more, perhaps up to twice as much; add the extra a few tablespoons at a time until the batter is thick but still pourable.
- Sour milkThis means naturally soured whole milk, the acid of which reacts with the soda. Cultured buttermilk is the direct substitute; failing that, stir a tablespoon of lemon juice or cider vinegar into a half cup of milk and let it stand ten minutes.
- Melted fatIn a book of this date this would commonly mean lard or vegetable shortening; melted butter works and tastes better. Measure the half cup after melting, and let it cool slightly so it does not cook the egg.
- Soda, sifted with the flourThe instruction is not decorative. Half a teaspoon of soda in one cup of flour will leave bitter pockets if it goes in undispersed, and the leavening starts as soon as it meets the sour milk.
- Nutmeg, unmeasuredA quarter teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg suits these quantities. Note the spicing is cinnamon-forward, two parts cinnamon to one of ginger, which is milder and rounder than most gingerbread today.
- Pan and timingAn 8-inch square pan gives a layer about an inch deep, roughly 25 to 30 minutes; muffin-tins fill about twelve cups and take 18 to 20 minutes. Test with a straw or skewer in the center.
- ServingBest barely warm, cut in squares, with the whipped cream suggested. It keeps two or three days well covered and is if anything moister on the second day.