"Gyngerbrede.--Take a quart of hony, & sethe it, & skeme it clene; take Safroun, pouder Pepir, & throw ther-on; take grayted Bred, & make it so chargeaunt that it wol be y-lechyd; then take pouder Canelle, & straw ther-on y-now; then make yt square, lyke as thou wolt leche yt; take when thou lechyst hyt, an caste Box leves a-bouyn, y-stykyd ther-on, on clowys. And if thou wolt haue it Red, coloure it with Saunderys y-now." (Austin)
Modern Interpretation (** Check the lessons learned before following this recipe.)
1/2 cup honey
1 loaf bread (1 lb.) grated or ground into crumbs
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
Bring honey to a boil. Then turn the burner down to a simmer and stir in the bread crumbs, ginger, cinnamon, and pepper. Press the mixture into a greased 8x8 inch pan. After it cools, slice it and serve.
To watch this recipe being made, please visit here.
Lessons Learned
I followed the recipe provided in the book Pleyn Delit, which calls for 1/2 cup of honey. However, according to Matterer, his recipe calls for 1 lb. of honey (2 cups of honey). Based on the amount of bread crumbs compared to the honey, I believe that Matterer's amount of honey is better than the amount called for in Pleyn Delit. However, the gingerbread is still cooling at the moment, so I will see later if my gut feeling is correct.
Works Cited
Austin, Thomas. "Two 15th c. Cookery-Books." 1888. Harleian MS. 279. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/CookBk/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext. Page 35.
Heiatt, Constance B. and Sharon Butler. "Pleyn Delit." University of Toronto Press: Toronto, Canada. 1976.
Matterer, James L. "Medieval Gingerbread." http://www.godecookery.com/ginger/ginger.htm.
My gut was correct. The one recipe did not call for enough honey. To see if I could save the gingerbread, I heated up a 1/2 cup of honey and then added the mixture. The mixture now looks more like gingerbread.
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