We thought this week, as we approach Christmas weekend, we’d share some fun facts about one of our beloved holiday foods, gingerbread. Perhaps you baked and decorated some gingerbread men or built a house with some of the young people in your family to celebrate the holiday. Many of us now just use kits or mixes for our gingerbread, but what we create really bears little resemblance to the gingerbread our ancestors knew.
Gingerbread was popular throughout Europe for centuries. Ginger root came from China, where it was used for its medicinal properties, especially for indigestion. A form of gingerbread appeared in both Greek and Egyptian early history. As trade increased between East and West, ginger was more available, and by the Middle Ages, its strong flavor was used to disguise the taste of meat that might not have been very fresh. (Image from Wikimedia Commons; public domain)
