Thanksgiving is over, it’s December, and that means it’s time for holiday decorations, music, and most of all, food. So for this episode of Savor, Anney Reese and Lauren Vogelbaum break down the history and traditions of gingerbread. It might just be a sweet and spicy cookie, but throughout history, gingerbread has made its way from queen’s halls to blue collar kitchens and from Ancient China to present-day Oregon; it has saved historical sites and helped elect politicians; it has been immortalized in fairy tales and horror movies alike; and it has been cut and shaped into everything from babies to pigs to giant palaces and even full villages, complete with cable cars.
The first recipe for gingerbread may have appeared as early as 2400 BCE in Ancient Greece. As its popularity spread throughout Europe, it became associated with the elite, since sugar, ginger, and the other spices required were expensive to get. Queen Elizabeth I would have cookies made in the shapes of her court dignitaries. If you were in favor with her, she gave the cookie to you; if not, she would bite its head off while you were watching. And the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick III would hand out cookies shaped like him while he was campaigning. But as the ingredients got more affordable, it became a more widespread holiday tradition to bake and eat gingerbread. There were superstitions about the shapes: Pigs were for luck, babies for fertility, and some women would even eat a gingerbread “husband” to indicate that she was ready for a real one. George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington, even served gingerbread to the Marquis de Lafayette in the shapes of eagles and kings.
In fact, Mary Ball’s recipe ended up saving her daughter’s estate. In 1922, trustees of the Kenmore Plantation and members of the Daughters of the American Revolution needed to raise $30,000 to make repairs on the historic house, and found the long-forgotten recipe in the attic. They typed up and sold copies of it to guests for 10¢; later, they sold the recipe to a company who made mixes of it for supermarkets. And today, the Kenmore still stands. Love it or hate it, gingerbread is an institution unto itself, and it’s tough to imagine a holiday season without getting at least a whiff. Hear more about the history and tradition of gingerbread, from folklore to films to favorite recipes, on this episode of Savor.
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