Nova Scotia Archives
What's Cooking?
Food, Drink and the Pleasures of Eating in Old-Time Nova Scotia
Molasses Gingerbread
Modern Method
Molasses Gingerbread3 cups of molasses
1 cup boiling water
2/3 cup butter
1 tbs. saleratus [baking soda]
2 spoonfuls of ginger [2 teaspoons]
Flour to make it as stiff as a pound cake [4 ½ cups flour]
Modern Adaptation:
Sift flour and baking soda. Add ginger. Rub the softened butter into the flour. Add molasses to flour mixture. Add boiling water and mix well. Pour into two greased 9 inch pans and bake at 300 degrees F about 75 minutes (1 ¼ hours) until tested done.
The MacGregor Miller Collection includes correspondence, business records, duties of Justice of the Peace and church-related material of the Miller family - Jacob Miller, a German Loyalist from New York who settled in Halifax, his son, Garrett Miller (1770-1840) who married Elizabeth Pernette of LaHave, and Garrett's and Elizabeth's sons Garrett T.M. Miller, Jacob P. Miller and Joseph Miller who lived in Bridgewater, Lunenburg County. The collection also includes material on families connected through marriage - Pernette, Zouberbuhler, Erad, Allen, Aitken, Hall, Mack and Owen. There are two folders of recipes probably assembled over several generations, ca. 1816 to ca. 1886, and undoubtedly collected from family members, friends and acquaintances.
Date: c. 1816 - c. 1886
Reference: Miller family Nova Scotia Archives MG 1 vol. 693 folder 3