Home › Recipes › Scott-Waverly
Scott-Waverly
We had dinner--where by the way, and even at breakfast as well as supper at the public houses on the road, the front rank is composed of various kinds of "sweet cakes," in a continuous line from one end of the table to the other. I think I may safely say that there was a row of ten or a dozen plates set before us two here. To account for which, they say that when the lumberers come out of the woods, they have a craving for cakes and pies and such sweet things, which there are almost unknown. And these hungry men think a good deal of getting their money's worth. No doubt the balance of victuals is restored by the time they reach Bangor-Mattawamkeag takes off the keen edge.-Thoreau-The Maine Woods.
So it appears from these extracts "ginge-bread" has been thought worthy to be mentioned in place in the grandest kind of a feast, and there are places where all sorts of sweet cakes are eaten with a hearty relish. We who have to serve such kinds side by side with hot French rolls need such assurances as the above-seeing our sweet breads and cakes come back again neglected. The simpler kinds of sweetened breads and good ginger bread seem to be more acceptable in the ordinary hotel where the "balance of victuals" is always nicely adjusted, than the richer sorts yet to come.