Gingerbread man

“ NE day, the cook went into the kitchen to make some gingerbread. She took some flour and water, and treacle and ginger, and mixed them all well together, and she put in some more water to make it thin, and then some more flour to make it thick, and a little salt and some spice, and then she rolled it out into a beautiful, smooth, dark-yellow dough.
Then she took the square tins and cut out some square cakes for the little boys, and with some round tins she cut out some round [2] cakes for the little girls, and then she said, “I’m going to make a little gingerbread man for little Bobby.” ”

“ I can talk while I work.” And the funny gingerbread man trotted off toward his kitchen, full of pans, rolling-pins, and molasses jugs.
“Sit down. I shall be at leisure as soon as this batch is baked. There are still some wise people down below who like gingerbread, and I have my hands full,” he said, dashing about, stirring, rolling out, and slapping the brown dough into pans, which he whisked into the oven and out again so fast that Lily knew there must be magic about it somewhere. ”

“ Its big appeal, however, is to the child’s sense of taste. The story arouses tasting images in the child’s mind, that are pleasurable and strong.
... “A chocolate jacket and cinnamon seeds for buttons! His eyes were made of fine, fat currants; his mouth was made of rose-colored sugar and he had a gay little cap of orange-sugar candy”—Sara Cone Bryant says in describing her Gingerbread Man. So, from this delectable, luscious paragraph about his make-up, to the climax of the story when [32] the Gingerbread Man is devoured by the fox, the child hearers eat in imagination all the way. ”

“ Now, the gingerbread man realized that if he told the Mifkets he was good to eat he would soon be destroyed; so he answered:
"I am made of a kind of material known only to civilized men. In fact, I am very different from all the rest of the world." ”

“ And long after the last crumb of the Gingerbread Man had disappeared, they were still fighting furiously, until, as cannibals when they start to fight never know how to stop, they killed each other, and Frip was the only person left alive on the beach of the desert island. ”

“ “You think the history of their lives and their silent love, which never came to anything, very remarkable; and there they are for you.” So saying, he gave Joanna the gingerbread man, who was still quite whole—and to Knud the broken maiden; but the children had been so much impressed by the story, that they had not the heart to eat the lovers up. ”

“ Much good dough may be spoiled in the baking. None knew that better than Jules Grogrande. So he tended the oven with nervous care, and finally, at exactly the right moment, the baker threw open the oven door and drew out the sheet of iron upon which the great and grand gingerbread man rested. ”

“ I have mentioned stolen gingerbread. This bread is a favorite delicacy in the camps; and the cook who can make really good gingerbread is prized indeed. It is made in wide, thin, tough sheets; and while it is being served to the hands, some fellow occasionally succeeds in ‘hooking’ a whole sheet while the cook’s back is toward him. But in that same instant every man’s hand is turned against him. He darts into the woods, devouring huge mouthfuls as he runs. If he is very swift of foot he may escape, eat his spoils in retirement, and stroll back, an hour later, with a conscious air of triumph. ”

“ He climbs no higher than is necessary, perches himself on a stout limb, and eats at his gingerbread for dear life. He knows just what position to take for safety; and often, ere the tree comes down, there is little gingerbread left to reward its captors. The meagre remnant is usually 293 handed over with an admirable submissiveness, if it is not dropped in the fall, and annihilated in the snow and débris. ”

“ I can make good gingerbread, and it's just as you say, neither of us know enough to teach well, and we are both poor hands at sewing, and we should have a much better chance if we tried to do what we can and not what we can't. Why shouldn't I make gingerbread? Dely'd help me, and if folks liked our things and bought them, we could live and keep together. ”

“ There were gingerbread dogs, gingerbread cats, gingerbread birds; and there were also horses of gingerbread, and elephants of gingerbread, and—what was more exciting than anything else—the wonderful and handsome lady who sold the gingerbread cakes could write anything to order on them. She had a sort of pencil which she dipped in liquid sugar, and behold, Pattie’s name could appear on the cake, or Harriet’s name, or any other thing that the girls happened to ask for.
Should they have a gingerbread each? Oh yes, they must. ”

“ Or make the gingerbread without butter, by mixing two pounds of treacle with the following ingredients. Four ounces each of orange, lemon, citron, and candied ginger, all thinly sliced; one ounce each of coriander seeds, caraways, and pounded ginger, adding as much flour as will make it into a soft paste. Lay it in cakes on tin plates, and bake it in a quick oven. Keep it dry in a covered earthen vessel, and the gingerbread will be good for some months. If cakes or biscuits be kept in paper, or a drawer, the taste will be disagreeable. ”

“ When all the gifts have been hunted out (down to a pair of skates with long curved tips for a boy so little that you would think St. Nicholas must have made a mistake if you did not know that Dutch children learn to skate almost as early as you learn to walk) , the children are ready for the season’s other special treat, the gingerbread cakes. Delicately spiced gingerbread is made into many fantastic shapes, but every one, young or old, receives a gingerbread doll. Figures of men are given to the women folk, and of women in ruffles and straight skirts to the men. ”

“ Golden mice were made by the Philistines [4] in Samuel's time when they were delivered from the plague that marred their land; but that may have been a golden age: this is an age of gingerbread, and the Hameln people manufacture rats accordingly. It will be understood that I use the word "gingerbread" generically: the artists work in sugar, chocolate, and other plastic materials, as best it pleases them. The card conveying "Grüsse aus Hameln" is nibbled round the edges to show its authenticity. ”

“ To mix it, boil the molasses with the butter and shortening cut up in it, and pour it hot upon the flour. Stir it a little, and then add the sour milk with the saleratus and ginger. Stir it well. Gingerbread is as much better for being thoroughly beaten, as any other cake. You can make it rather more delicate by using butter only, adding a gill of brown sugar, and substituting cinnamon and clove instead of ginger. On the other hand, very good gingerbread is made by omitting the butter, and using shortening instead, and cold water or cider in place of the sour milk. ”

“ The celebrated gingerbread maker has, on a ‘peel,’ three kings, duly gilt—Bavaria, Wurtemberg, and Baden—which he is just introducing into the ‘New French Oven for Imperial Gingerbread.’ On a chest of three drawers, relatively labelled Kings and Queens, Crowns and Sceptres, and Suns and Moons, are a quantity of ‘Little Dough Viceroys, intended for the next batch.’ Under the oven is an 49‘Ash hole for broken Gingerbread,’ and a broom—‘the Corsican Besom of Destruction’—has swept therein La République Française, Italy, Austria, Spain, Netherlands, Switzerland, Holland, and Venice. ”

“ Stir butter, sugar, molasses, and spice together to a light cream, set them on the range until slightly warm; beat the eggs light; add the milk to the warmed mixture, then the eggs, the soda, and lastly the flour. Beat very hard ten minutes, and bake at once in a loaf, or in small tins. Half a pound raisins, seeded and cut in half, will improve this excellent gingerbread. ”

“ Hard Gingerbread.—Rub half lb. butter in one of flour—rub in half lb. sugar, two table-spoons ginger—spoonful rose water; work it well, roll out, and bake in flat pans about half hour moderate.
Common Gingerbread.—One and half lb. flour, rub in half lb. butter, add pint molasses, tea-spoon pearl ash, and ginger to the taste; roll out thin and bake on buttered tins.
Indian Batter Cakes.—2 quarts milk, 1 quart Indian meal, 1 tea-cup wheat flour, 3 eggs, well beat, the whites separate, tea-spoonful salt. Bake on griddle, same as buckwheat. ”

“ Mix the day before baking.
46. Another Way.—7 lbs. of flour, 5 lbs. of syrup, 23⁄4 lbs. of moist sugar, 1 lb. of lard, 4 ozs. ginger, 1⁄2 oz. of tartaric acid, 1⁄2 oz. of carbonate of soda, 1⁄2 oz. of cinnamon, 1⁄2 oz. of mace. Mix and work same as other doughs. This is a capital mixture.
47.—Light Gingerbread.
Dr. Colquhoun gives a recipe for preparing a light gingerbread as follows: Take 1 lb. of flour, 1⁄4 oz. of carbonate of magnesia, and 1/8 oz. of tartaric acid. Mix the flour and magnesia thoroughly, then dissolve and add the acid; take the usual quantity of butter, treacle, and spice ”

“ When it is cold, it is ready for use.
GINGERBREAD AND SMALL CAKES. GINGERBREAD. MRS. W. H. ECKHART. One and one-half cups Orleans molasses, one cup brown or granulated sugar, one-half cup lard, one cup boiling water, one teaspoon soda dissolved in the water, two teaspoons ginger, one teaspoon each of cloves and cinnamon, three cups flour, one egg. Put all in the vessel, excepting the water and egg; beat well; then add the water and soda; after stirring this well together, add the beaten egg. Bake in quick oven. Put greased paper in pan before pouring in the mixture. Let cool in the pans. ”

“ The remembrance of those childish reproaches haunts me yet oftentimes in my dreams. My school-days come again, and the horror I used to feel, when in some silent corner retired from the notice of my unfeeling playfellows, I have sat to mumble the solitary slice of gingerbread allotted me by the bounty of considerate friends, and have ached at heart because I could not spare a portion of it, as I saw other boys do, to some favourite boy;—for if I know my own heart, I was never selfish,—never possessed a luxury which I did not hasten to communicate to others ”

“ I have just baked some gingerbread and some one really must try it while it is still fresh."
It was certainly delightful to sit in a cushioned chair by the wide fireplace where a few sticks were burning, to drink cool milk and eat new gingerbread and to hear the rain drumming on the tiles outside the casement window. Miss Miranda, sitting opposite with her knitting, was asking questions about Elizabeth's father, about her work and her school and her plans for college, in which she seemed to be much interested. ”

“ This sort of gingerbread is baked daily and more sedulously than pure wheat or rye-and-Indian in almost every oven, and finds a surer market.
The best books are not read even by those who are called good readers. ”

“ Mother took the pan out of the oven. She tipped out the gingerbread and put it on a rack and covered it with a cloth. “It looks very well,” she said.
The fragrance of that gingerbread filled the whole house. ”

“ Gingerbread Aperients.—Gingerbread, made with oatmeal or with barley flour, is a very agreeable aperient for children. Beware of giving children medicines too frequently.
3740. For Bowel Complaints.—One tablespoonful of flour, one ditto of brandy, one ditto of loaf sugar, mixed together.
3741. Jaundice.—One pennyworth of allspice, ditto of flour of brimstone, ditto of turmeric; these to be well pounded together, and afterward to be mixed with half-a-pound of molasses. Two table-spoonsful to be taken every day. ”

“ Cream Gingerbread
Bake in gem pans. Greatly improved by adding nuts and raisins.
Cream Gingerbread Cakes
Beat 2 eggs until light, add 1⁄2 cup of sugar, 1⁄2 cup molasses, 3⁄4 cup thick sour cream, the grated rind of 1⁄2 lemon, 1 saltspoon of salt, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ginger, and finally, add 2 cups of well sifted flour mixed with 11⁄2 teaspoons soda (level) .
Bake in gem pans. If desired add nuts and raisins which improves them very much. [114]
Parliament Gingerbread
(With apologies to the English Suffragists)
A bit of hot water in which soda is dissolved. ”

“ Hänsel. Please let me out, Mrs. Gingerbread.
The Gingerbread Witch. When you are fatter. Now I must look to my fire. It [121] is burning well, and the oven will soon be hot enough to bake my dinner. When I change my gingerbread I'll pop little Gretel in and shut the door. ”

“ So, since there must be lighter draughts, or many a poor man go thirsty, we who are but the ginger-pop of life may well rejoice, remembering that ginger-pop is nourishing and tonic,—that thousands of weary wayfarers who could never know the taste of the costly brands, and who go sadly and wearily, will be fleeter of foot and gladder of soul because of its humble and evanescent foam. ”

“ In Ben Jonson's masque of The metamorphosed gipsies, a country wench laments the being robbed of "a dainty race of ginger;" and in the old play of The famous victories of Henry the fifth, a clown charges a thief with having "taken the great race of ginger, that bouncing Besse with the jolly buttocks should have had." In Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the burning pestle, the citizen's wife gives a man who had [Pg 89] been soundly beaten some green ginger to comfort him. Ginger was used likewise to spice ale. ”

“ When he gets home he hangs his purchase on a nail. You know the effect of the atmosphere on gingerbread; the slightest moisture renders it soft; in dry weather, on the contrary, it grows hard and tough. ”

“ By boiling, the ginger loses a portion of its essential oil; and its black colour is owing to this.
The uses of ginger, both in medicine, and as a spice, are numerous and well known. In the West Indies this root is frequently eaten fresh in salads, and with other food: and the roots when dug up young, namely, at the end of three or four months after they have been planted, are preserved in syrup, and exported as a sweet-meat to nearly all parts of the world. The ginger which is brought into this country from the East Indies is much stronger than any we have from Jamaica. ”