Settlers from Europe brought gingerbread recipes to the U.S. colonies. Molasses cost much less than sugar and became a common ingredient. American Cookery, the first American cookbook, published in 1796, contained seven different recipes for gingerbread. 

Since there is so much variation in the different woods used in a wood burning stove, cookbooks usually just said to use a slow, moderate, or quick oven. And cooking times weren’t always provided, since they weren’t very accurate. But old recipes are still interesting to read, and the ingredient combinations might help vary a modern recipe.

NOTE: Recipes were mostly in narrative form until the latter part of the 1800s. Then cookbooks began publishing recipes in list form.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

FAIRY GINGERBREAD
Take one cup butter and beat it to a cream. Gradually add two cups sugar and when very light, one tablespoon of ginger, and one cup milk in which three-fourths teaspoon soda has been dissolved. Finally add four cups flour and mix well. Turn baking pans upside down and wipe the bottoms very clean. Butter them, and spread the cake mixture very thin on them. Bake in a moderate oven* until brown. While still hot, cut into squares with a case-knife and slip from the pan. Keep in a tin box. 

*moderate oven – a moderate oven is about 350-400 degrees Fahrenheit

GINGER NUTS
Carefully melt half a pound of butter and stir it up in two pounds of molasses. Add an ounce of pounded ginger, two ounces of preserved lemon and orange peel, two ounces of preserved angelica* cut small, one of coriander seed pounded, and the same of caraway whole. Mix them together, with two eggs, and as much flour as will bring it to a fine paste. Make it into nuts, put them on a tin plate, and bake them in a quick oven until done.

*angelica – a sweetly scented plant with edible stems and roots

GINGER SNAPS
Boil one-half cup butter, suet, or chicken fat, and one cup molasses for two minutes. Add three cups flour, one-half teaspoon soda, one tablespoon ginger, and two teaspoons salt, mixed and sifted. Beat well and chill over night. Roll very thin and shape with a knife or cutter. Bake on a buttered pan in a quick oven* eight to ten minutes.

*quick oven – a quick (or hot) oven is about 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit

HARD MOLASSES GINGERBREAD
Hard gingerbread is good to have in the family, as it keeps so well. To a pint of molasses, put half a teacup of melted butter, a tablespoon of ginger, and a quart of flour. Dissolve a teaspoon of saleratus* in half a pint of water, and stir it in, together with flour sufficient to enable you to roll it out. Bake on flat pans in a moderate oven for twenty or thirty minutes. When done, cut it up before you take it out of the pans, as it cannot be done after it is cold without crumbling the edges. 

* saleratus– sodium bicarbonate (or sometimes potassium bicarbonate)

SOFT MOLASSES GINGERBREAD
Melt a teacup of butter, then mix it with a pint of molasses, a tablespoon of ginger, a pint of flour, and a couple of beaten eggs. Fresh lemon peel, cut into small strips, improves it. Dissolve a couple of teaspoons of saleratus in half a pint of milk, and stir it into the cake. Add flour to render it of the consistency of unbaked pound cake. Bake it in deep pans about half an hour.

GINGER COOKIES
3 pounds flour
1 pound butter and lard mixed
1 pound brown sugar
1 pint molasses
1 good sized teaspoon of soda or 2 level ones
Add ginger to taste—about 4 level teaspoons 

Also lemon extract or grated rind and juice if preferred

Put flour, sugar and butter together and rub thoroughly. Make a hole in the center and pour in the molasses in which the soda has been beaten in. Stir all well together. Break off enough to roll out and cut into shapes. Space apart in a pan and bake in a moderate oven until done. These keep well, especially in a stone crock. 

HOT WATER GINGERBREAD 
1/3 cup beef dripping* 
2 3⁄4 cups flour
2/3 cup boiling water
1 cup dark molasses
1 egg well beaten
1 teaspoon soda
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1 1⁄2 teaspoons ginger

Pour boiling water over the shortening. Add the molasses and egg. Mix and sift the dry ingredients, add to first mixture, and beat well. Pour into a shallow, greased cake pan, and bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes.

*dripping – the fat and juices from the roasting pan when cooking meat

SOUR MILK GINGERBREAD
2 cups flour
1 cup molasses
1 1⁄2 teaspoons soda
1 cup thick sour milk* 
1 teaspoon ginger
1 egg well beaten
1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Mix and sift the dry ingredients. Add molasses, milk, and egg, and beat well. Pour into a greased pan, and bake in a moderate oven twenty-five minutes.

*sour milk – raw milk (not pasteurized) that was not used quickly enough, though still safe to drink.

GINGER GEMS
1⁄2 cup molasses
1⁄4 cup brown sugar
1⁄4 cup shortening
1⁄2 cup boiling water
1 beaten egg
1 1⁄2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon ginger
1⁄2 teaspoon cinnamon
1⁄4 teaspoon salt

Mix in the order given, sifting the dry ingredients together. Beat well, pour into greased muffin tins, and bake in a moderate oven twenty minutes.

GINGER WAFERS
1⁄2 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar
2 1⁄4 cups bread flour
1⁄2 teaspoon soda
1⁄4 teaspoon salt
1 1⁄4 teaspoons ginger
1⁄2 cup milk

Cream the shortening and sugar. Sift the soda, salt, and ginger with the flour, and add alternately with the milk. Chill, then roll thin on a baking sheet. Mark in squares and bake in a moderate oven eight or ten minutes. Remove from the pan while warm.

FRUIT GINGERBREAD
2 pounds flour
3⁄4 pound butter
1 pound sugar
1 pound raisins, seeded and chopped
1 pounds currants, well washed
2 cups molasses
1⁄2 cup sour cream
6 eggs.
1 heaping teaspoon soda dissolved in hot water
2 tablespoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves

Cream the butter and sugar, warm the molasses slightly, and beat these together. Separate the eggs and add the beaten yolks, then the milk and spice, and the soda. Add the flour and whites well whipped. Lastly, add the fruit, which must be thickly dredged in flour. Beat well before baking.

A little citron, shred fine, is an improvement. Bake in two broad pans, in a moderate oven until done. This cake will keep a long time.

SPONGE GINGERBREAD
5 cups flour
1 heaping tablespoonful butter
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk (sour is best)
2 teaspoonfuls saleratus, not soda, dissolved in hot water
2 teaspoonfuls ginger.
1 teaspoonful cinnamon.

Mix the molasses, sugar, butter, and spice together. Warm them slightly, and beat until they are lighter in color by many degrees than when you began. Add the milk, then the saleratus, and having mixed all well, put in the flour. Beat very hard five minutes, and bake in a broad, shallow pan. Half a pound of seeded raisins cut in pieces will be a pleasant addition.

Try this gingerbread warm for tea or luncheon, with a cup of hot chocolate to accompany it, and you will soon repeat the experiment.

SOUR CREAM GINGERBREAD
1 egg
1⁄2 cup molasses
1⁄2 cup sugar
3⁄4 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons soda
3 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
2 cups flour

Mix and sift the dry ingredients three times. Beat the egg, add cream, molasses, and remaining ingredients, and beat until smooth. Pour into a buttered pan and bake in a moderate oven twenty to thirty minutes.

Photo from Deposit Photos

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