Gingerbread 101: History, Ginger, and Literature

Gingerbread and ginger

• Native to southeastern Asia, ginger was brought to Europe via the Silk Road.
• Ginger was used for its ability to disguise the taste of preserved meats during the Middle Ages (when refrigerators were nowhere to be found).
• Ginger was said to be used by King Henry VIII of England to build a resistance to the plague (like pepper and other spices).
• Seen as more than a sweet confection, gingerbread inherits ginger's medicinal properties, including stomach settling, nausea suppressing, etc.