Civil War Cooking Tutorial:

 Soft Gingerbread

Original Recipe:
1 c. butter
1 c. molasses
1 c. sugar
1 c. sour or buttermilk
1 tsp. [baking] soda, dissolved in boiling water
1 tbs. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 eggs
Flour (see recipe)
1/2 lb. raisins (optional)

About five cups of flour--enough to make it thick as cup-cake batter, perhaps a trifle thicker. Work in four cups first, and add very cautiously.

Stir butter, sugar, molasses, and spice together to a light cream, set them on the range until slightly warm; beat the eggs light; add the milk to the warmed mixture, then the eggs, the soda, and lastly the flour. Beat very hard ten minutes, and bake at once in a loaf, or in small tins. Half a pound raisins, seeded, and cut in half will improve this excellent gingerbread. Dredge them well [in flour] before putting them in. Add them at the last.

Source:

Harland, Marion; Common Sense In The Household, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, NY, 1871.

Modern-Day Adaptation:

For this dish, a large cooking vessel is recommended. We used an 9 X 13 baking dish, and it worked fine. Do not use a full-sized (tall) loaf pan or bread pan, as the mixture will not cook through before burning on the outside. (Trust us: we used a loaf pan on the first try and it came out looking just beautiful. Unfortunately when we took it out of the pan one side collapsed and a tidal wave of hot but nearly raw gingerbread dough swept through the kitchen.) The recipe can be a bit confusing, in that you will do the second paragraph first, then follow the instructions in paragraph one. The mixture will rise substantially, so leave room in your baking dish for it.

Results:

The final dish was tasted by 6 people. Almost all agreed that the proportion of spices was just not "right" at least in terms of what modern folk expect gingerbread to taste like. Many thought more sugar was needed, and most agreed that the ginger flavor was not detectable enough. Readers may wish to modify to 1 1/4 cup sugar, 1 1/2 teaspoons each of ginger and cinnamon.