A very good way to make molasses gingerbread is to rub four pounds and
a half of flour with half a pound of lard and half a pound of butter;
a pint of molasses, a gill of milk, tea-cup of ginger, a tea-spoonful
of dissolved pearlash stirred together. All mixed, baked in shallow
pans twenty or thirty minutes.
Hard gingerbread is good to have in the family, it keeps so well. One
pound of flour, half a pound of butter and sugar, rubbed into it; half
a pound of sugar; great spoonful of ginger, or more, according to the
strength of the ginger; a spoonful of rose-water, and a handful of
caraway seed. Well beat up. Kneaded stiff enough to roll out and bake
on flat pans. Bake twenty or thirty minutes.
A cake of common gingerbread can be stirred up very quick in the
following way. Rub in a bit of shortening as big as an egg into a
pint of flour; if you use lard, add a little salt; two or three great
spoonfuls of ginger; one cup of molasses, one cup and a half of cider,
and a great spoonful of dissolved pearlash, put together and poured
into the shortened flour while it is foaming; to be put in the oven in
a minute. It ought to be just thick enough to pour into the pans with
difficulty; if these proportions make it too thin, use less liquid the
next time you try. Bake about twenty minutes.
If by carelessness you let a piece of short-cake dough grow sour, put
in a little pearlash and water, warm a little butter, according to the
size of the dough, knead in a cup or two of sugar, (two cups, unless
it is a very small bit,) two or three spoonfuls of ginger, and a
little rose-water Knead it up thoroughly, roll it out on a flat pan,
and bake it twenty minutes. Every thing mixed with pearlash should be
put in the oven immediately.