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Olympic Luncheon Dishes
Ginger Bread 21/2 Cups Olympic Flour 1 cup molasses 1 1 1/2 cup butter cup boiling water 1/2 cup sugar teaspoons each of ginger, cloves and cinnamon 3 2 scant teaspoons soda 2 eggs 4 tablespoonfuls lard or butter 3/4 3/4 cup sugar Cream butter and sugar; add molasses and spices, then boiling water, in which soda has been dissolved. Sift flour and add; then eggs, well beaten. Bake in 1 cup raisins 1 teaspoonful salt moderate oven.
A molasses gingerbread of the hot-water type, where the soda is dissolved in boiling liquid rather than sifted with the flour. The quantities as printed are inconsistent, so read the notes below before you scale anything.
- Moderate ovenBake at 350F. A loaf-shaped pan will need about 40-50 minutes; a 9-inch square pan about 30-35. It is done when the centre springs back and a skewer comes out clean.
- Olympic FlourA house brand of the Portland Flouring Mills, promoted through booklets like this one. Plain all-purpose flour is the direct substitute; no adjustment is needed.
- The hot-water methodDissolving the soda in boiling water and adding it to the molasses batter is the hinge of the recipe. It starts the gas immediately, so have the pan greased and the oven at temperature before the water goes in, and get the batter into the oven without delay.
- Fat quantities are unclearThe text gives both a cup measure of butter and four tablespoons of lard or butter. A gingerbread of this size normally takes about 1/2 cup (4 oz) of fat; a full cup and a half would be far too rich to hold together.
- Sugar is listed twiceTwo separate sugar amounts appear, one of them incomplete. With a full cup of molasses, roughly 1/2 cup of sugar is consistent with gingerbread of the period.
- SodaThe recipe gives 2 scant teaspoons for 1 cup of molasses, which is on the generous side; 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons is the more usual proportion, and heavier hands can give a soapy, darkened crumb.
- SpicesThe spice quantity has lost its number; equal parts ginger, cloves and cinnamon, about a teaspoon each, is a reasonable reading. Cloves dominate quickly, so lean toward the low end.
- Raisins and saltThe raisins and salt appear at the end of the printed method rather than in sequence. Toss the raisins in a little of the measured flour and fold them in last; the salt goes in with the flour.
- YieldAs written it fills one 9-inch square pan or a large loaf tin, giving 9 to 12 squares. It keeps better than most cakes, improving on the second day if wrapped.
Molasses gingerbread was one of the most reliable American home cakes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, because it depended on ingredients that kept indefinitely on a shelf: molasses, soda, dried spices and a little fat. The hot-water version here belongs to the softer, spoon-cut style of gingerbread that grew commoner as chemical leavening became cheap and dependable, alongside the older rolled and cut gingerbreads. Books of this kind were published by flour millers to keep their brand in front of housekeepers, which accounts for the homely phrasing.