Day 7 – The History of Gingerbread
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” I Corinthians 10:31
Gingerbread, and other food such as cookies, flavored with ginger are now thought of as Christmas flavors.
Ginger is a spice which first came into Europe from Asia via Arabia in in the 1st century. It had been used in its native areas and countries like China, to treat ailments for several hundred years.
The first gingerbread is thought to have been brought into Europe in 992 by Gregory of Nicopolis, who was an Armenian monk. He went to live in northern France and is recorded teaching people how to make gingerbread.
During the middle ages ginger became more popular in Europe as a flavoring. Some of the first recorded recipes for gingerbread were for ginger, and other exotic spices like nutmeg and cloves, to be mixed with honey and thickened with breadcrumbs (or sometimes even parsnips).
That’s where the name ‘gingerbread’ comes from. This mixture was more like a sticky cake and not like the gingerbread which we build into houses.
A type of gingerbread (pierniki toruńskie) has been made in Toruń,Poland since the 1300s.
In the 1400s there are records from a convent in Sweden saying that nuns baked gingerbread as eating it helped ease indigestion. And in the 1500s in England a writer said gingerbread was “a kinde of cake or paste made to comfort the stomacke”.
In England, early gingerbread was also often colored red and known as ‘red gingerbread’. There was also ‘white gingerbread’ which was marzipan mixed with spices.
In Germany, the first Christmas Trees were decorated with edible things, such as gingerbread and gold covered apples. An unknown German, in 1605, wrote: “At Christmas they set up fir trees in the parlors of Strasbourg and hang thereon roses cut out of many-colored paper, apples, wafers, gold foil, sweets, etc.”.
In the 1700s and 1800s gingerbread recipes changed as sugar became cheaper. Gingerbread became more like biscuits/cookies with flour and molasses replacing the honey and breadcrumbs. Gingerbread was made into shapes by pressing the dough into wooden molds. They then made them into shapes like people and animals. It could be very tough to eat when it was first cooked and sometimes needed to ‘mature’ and ‘soften’ to make it more edible.
By the Victorian period, in the UK, ginger was the cheapest ‘spice’ available and gingerbread was eaten all through the year. Now we make houses, cookies and just eat gingerbread in any form. It can be cake or cookies, etc.
Whether it is for your stomach sake you eat gingerbread or just for fun, enjoy it this holiday season! So grab a book and a gingerbread cookie and relax in front of a warm fire! And a great book to read as we think about Pearl Harbor Day today is this one. Check it out. I was so blessed to read about how our soldiers not only took their duty of protecting our country to heart but also understood when compassion was needed. (All Because Of Two Sticks Of Gum)