GINGERBREAD. A very well-known article of food, which has been in vogue cer tainly since the 14th c., when it was made and sold in Paris, according to Monteil in his .ifistoire des Francais (tom. ii. pp. 47, 48); it was then made of rye dough, kneaded with ginger and other spice, and honey or sugar. It was probably introduced into England by the court of Henry IV., and since that time has played an important, part in the pleasures of young and old at the fairs and festivals of the country. Changes were, no doubt, wrought in its composition as soon as it appeared in this country, and the expen sive honey gave way to the cheaper treacle which was then in use, and the color was hidden under some coloring matter or gilding. " To take the gilt off the gingerbread," has become a proverb, and the booths glittering with their gilded array of rude devices in gingerbread, so familiar to our boyhood, still make an occasional appearance in the country fairs.
Three forms of this article are to be found in most pastry-cooks' shops, and one or more of them in the sanctum of every good housewife. 1. Square soft cakes, from 2 to 3 inch. in thickness. 2. Thin cakes of various forms, but most frequently round, being stamped out with the top of a wine-glass, or other contrivance. 3. Small button-like cakes, called gingerbread-nuts. The two last should be baked very quickly, crispness being indispensable. The constituents of modern gingerbread are treacle, moist sugar, wheaten-flour, and butter; a little carbonate of magnesia and tartaric acid, or carbonate of ammonia, are also put in to give lightness by many makers.
a popular and cheap liquor, made by the fermentation of sugar and water, and flavored with various substances, but chiefly with ginger. It is partly an article of domestic manufacture, and is partly made on a larger scale for sale. It may be made by dissolVing about 6 lbs. of sugar in 14 galls. of water; adding 4 oz.
of bruised ginger and the whites of two eggs, well beaten; mixing thoroughly; boiling for a quarter of an hour; skimming carefully; and when the liquor has cooled, adding the juice of four lemons, and also their rinds for flavoring, with a tea-cupful of ale-yeast to promote fermentation ; letting it ferment in an open vessel for twenty-four hours, and then putting it into a cask of suitable size, closely bunged, in which it remains for a fortnight before it is bottled. It is, however, very common to increase the strength of ginger-wine by the addition of spirits, the flavor being also modified by the kind of spirits employed, A little spirits added makes ginger-win• keep well, and it even improves in quality for many months. Its quality depends much on that of the sugar and of the ginger employed, and also on the care with which the manufacture is conducted.
GINGIIAld. A cotton fabric originally introduced with its present name from India; it is now manufactured to an immense extent in Britain, and our manufacturers supply, to a very great extent, the Indian markets. It differs from calico in the circumstance, that its colors are woven in and not afterwards printed. At first, the Indian ginghams consisted of cotton cloths, with two or more colors arranged as a small checkered pattern; now, a great variety of designs are found in this material, and in the case of uinbrella ginghams, the whole piece is woven with yarn of one color. The following are the chief kinds of gingham known in the markets of Great Britain: plain common light grounds; plain common dark grounds; Earlston ginghams; power-loom seer suckers and checks (imitations of the Indian patterns); muslin ground (stripes and checks): furniture stripes and checks; colored diapers; crossover stripes; denies, Hungarians; jean stripes, and umbrella ginghams.