Rub half a pound of butter into a pound and a half of sifted
flour; and mix in half a pound of brown sugar, crushed fine with
the rolling-pin. Add two large table-spoonfuls of ginger, a tea-spoonful
of powdered cloves, and a tea-spoonful of powdered
cinnamon. Stir in a pint of molasses, and the grated peel of a
large lemon, but not the juice, as you must add at the last, a
very small tea-spoonful of pearl-ash dissolved in a little
lukewarm water, and pearl-ash entirely destroys the taste of
lemon-juice and of every other acid. Stir the whole mixture very
hard with a spaddle or with a wooden spoon, and make it into a
lump of dough just stiff enough to roll out into a sheet about
half an inch thick. Cut it out into small cakes about the size of
a quarter dollar; or make it up, with your hands well floured,
into little round balls, flattening them on the top. Lay them in
buttered pans, and bake them in a moderate oven. They will keep
several weeks.