Dijon, France produced 60,000 pounds of buckwheat honey - very dark and too strong for "table use" but perfect for gingerbread, according to The British Bee Journal of 1906. Other types of honey would sink after the gingerbread had risen. However, a British author in 1848 wrote that the "French, whose gingerbread is vile stuff, use honey instead of
treacle." Recipes for honey gingerbread - medieval to early 20th - near end of post.
Buckwheat Honey for Gingerbread.
We read in Le Miel an
interesting article by M. R. Piot on the use of honey in the manufacture of
gingerbread. He says white honey is no use in making gingerbread, and honey
from Brittany is the only one used in France for the purpose. This is
exclusively buckwheat honey, very dark, thick, rich, strong flavoured, and in
cold weather it can be cut with a spade. This honey has a characteristic
flavour so pronounced as to make it unsuitable for table use, but rendering it
just the thing for manufacturing gingerbread.
The reason why Dijon has become
the centre for the manufacture of gingerbread is rather interesting. - It came
originally from Flanders, and it appears that when Philip the Good married he
was anxious, in order to accustom his wife to her new surroundings, to proceed
by gradual transition and make as few changes as possible in her habits and
tastes. He, therefore, brought with him from Flanders a cook who knew how to
make a special kind of cake of which the duchess was very fond, and this cake
was simply honey gingerbread. Imitators soon appeared and they started shops
for the sale of the gingerbread, and in this way the industry was established
in Dijon. The town of Dijon now, in this manufacture alone consumes annually
from 900 to 1,000 barrels of honey, ' barrel weighing 600 lb., making a total
of 60,000 lb. of honey used for making gingerbread alone. The industry is so
dependent on buckwheat honey that when it is scarce they will pay a high price
for it, and have given as much as '' francs the 100 kilos, or thirty to forty
francs more than, white honey was selling for. The principal of buckwheat
honey is that the dough rises with it and remains light, whereas with other
honey after rising it again sinks and causes the cakes to be heavy.
Quality of Honey for Gingerbread.
We find in l'Apiculteur a report of
an interesting discussion which took place at the last meeting of the Central
Bee-keepers' Society of France. M. R. Aubert wished to know, on the subject of
import duties, whether the manufacturers of gingerbread did not use foreign
honey. M. Rousseray stated that the manufacturers were not able to use either
the coarse Chilian or European honeys. The French white honeys are absolutely
of no use for making honey-cakes, as with them the dough does not rise. The
honey produced in Brittany is indispensable for the purpose, and is used by
manufacturers. An increase in the import duty would not affect the sale of
white honey which could only be increased by bringing it more prominently
before the public and making known its advantages, as is done in England, where
honey figures at five o'clock teas, and on other occasions. Nothing is done in
this way in France.
The British Bee Journal. Feb 8,
1906
The French, whose gingerbread is vile stuff, use honey instead of
treacle…
Francis, George William. The Dictionary of Practical Receipts. London:
1848
History of honey gingerbread, 1854
The Rhodians, we are told, had a particular kind of bread sweetened
with honey, so exquisitely pleasant, that it was eaten with other delicacies
after dinner; this probably is similar to that now known as Honey, Queen's, or
German gingerbread, or the spicebread (pain d'epice) of the French; this last used
to be made with barley flour, or sugar, honey, and spice; when baked, the top
was washed over with the scum taken off sugar in refining houses. The
gingerbread of the ancients appears to have been, according to Monteil, rye
bread, kneaded with spice and honey or sugar.
The taste for this sort of bread appears to have been universal, but
carried to the most excess in Holland, where it is considered the best sort is
made. It is stated, that the success of a person who wishes to ingratiate
himself with a family often depends, in no small degree, on the quality and
quantity of presents which he makes in gingerbread. The receipt even for making it is supposed to
descend as an heir-loom from father to son, and is kept a secret beyond the
family circle.
Recipes
Medieval Gingerbread 1400s
Gyngerbrede.--Take a quart of hony, & sethe it [boil], & skeme [skim] it clene; take Safroun [saffron], pouder Pepir [pepper], & throw ther-on; take grayted Bred [bread crumbs], & make it so chargeaunt [stiff] that it wol be y-lechyd [cut in slices]; then take pouder Canelle [cinnamon], & straw [strew] ther-on y-now; then make yt [it] square, lyke [like] as thou wolt leche yt [cut it]; take when thou lechyst hyt [cut it], an caste Box leves [leaves] a-bouyn [above], y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys [stick on cloves]. And if thou wolt haue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys [sandalwood] y-now [enough].
Two 15th c. Cookery-Books by Thomas Austin, 1888
Queen's or Honey Gingerbread.—3 lbs. of flour, 1 ¾ lb. of moist sugar, ½ lb. of preserved orange-peel, ½ lb. of lemon-peel, ½ lb. of sweet almonds blanched, the peel and
almonds cut into small thin slices, the yellow rinds of 2 lemons grated off, 1
oz. of cinnamon, ¼ oz. each of
cardamoms, cloves, nutmegs, and mace, in fine powder, 2 lbs. of honey, and a
wineglass of water.
Put the honey and water into a saucepan over the fire, and make it
nearly boiling hot; mix the flour, spices, &c, together, make a bay, pour
in the honey whilst hot, and make the whole into a moderately stiff paste, and
let it stand until the next day; it may be made light with volatile salt,
carbonate of soda, or potash; roll it into a sheet about a quarter of an inch
thick, and put it on a buttered tin. Bake in a moderate oven. In the mean time,
boil about half a pint of clarified loaf sugar to the blow, and with a stiff
brush rub this over the surface as soon as it is taken out of the oven, so as
to grain it, and make it look white; cut it with a knife whilst warm, into
pieces about the size of a playing-card. This is frequently made of inferior
quality by using common spice, and omitting the almonds and peel.
German Gingerbread.—This is the same as the last, with the exception
that flour is strewed over the tin for the paste to be baked on.
Honeycomb, or Roll Gingerbread.—1 lb. of flour, 1 lb. of good moist
sugar, ½ lb. of butter, 1 oz. of ground
ginger, the yellow rind of 2 lemons grated off, some also add the juice.
Rub the butter in with the flour, add the sugar, and mix the whole into
a soft paste with raw treacle thin enough to be dropped on tins, which should
be well buttered ; let each cake be four or five inches asunder, as they spread
very much; bake them in rather a cool oven. These may either be made small for
nuts, or into large cakes, when they are rolled
round a small stick whilst warm. These should be kept quite close in a tin
canister, in a dry warm place.
Read, George. The complete
biscuit and gingerbread baker's assistant 2d
London: 1854
Honey Gingerbread [cake]
California Cultivator Aug 26, 1916
Pictured are slices of Buckwheat Honey gingerbread (left) and same gingerbread recipe using honey from New Jersey, the lighter ones on the right.
Pictured are slices of Buckwheat Honey gingerbread (left) and same gingerbread recipe using honey from New Jersey, the lighter ones on the right.
Honey Gingerbread. [Cookies]
Two pounds of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of castor sugar,
one ounce of ground ginger, one-half pound of honey, one-half pound of sirup,
two eggs. Sift the flour and ginger on to the slab and rub in the butter. Make a bay, into which place the sugar, honey,
sirup and eggs. Beat to a cream, and
work to a stiff paste. Roll out thin,
cut out with a cutter about four inches long by two wide. Bake in a cool oven to a golden color. This being a very delicate article should
sell in good shops at 1s. per pound.
Good Housekeeping Mar. 1892 “Some English Recipes”
Tanging or calling bees post HERE
Honey posts HERE
Images from -
Bevan, Edward. The Honey Bee. London: 1827 most images
Munster, Sebastian.
Cosmogrphia. Bern: 1545 Mask and Skep
The Child’s Companion. London:
1861 Lady tanging
Den Naarstigen byen-houder.
Amsterdam: c1669 in Moir Rare
Book Collection. Scotland. 1st
©2018 Patricia Bixler Reber
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