dessert – From the Journals of William Burl Kincaid, Jr.

My paternal grandparents were Hugh and Bertha Karrick of Salt Lick, Kentucky, and while thumbing through an old Homemaker’s cookbook, I found my grandmother’s recipe for gingerbread and decided I should try to make it with my own granddaughter, Elliott. She is four years old and loves to mix stuff up in the kitchen, recipe or not! It turned out great and we topped it with homemade whipped topping. Yum.

As I stated in previous post, as I move forward with this blog, I hope to share old local recipes like the gingerbread recipe of my Mamaw’s. I have quite a few cookbooks from the Homemakers, The Women’s Club, local churches, and so forth. These need to be saved for various reasons. First, these old cookbooks give us a glance of the domestic work that women traditionally did, and it’s work that needs to be appreciated, as it has often, at least in my opinion, been undervalued.

Second, old local cookbooks connect us with not only our own ancestors, but also the ancestors of our community, and they offer a glimpse into how information was collectively passed on. The recipes and household tips may seem trivial, but they’re not. I’ve participated in the compilation of these kinds of cookbooks, and it’s been my experience that the recipes are eagerly shared and received. Everybody wants a recipe that works, and in the days before the Internet provided easy access to that, women shared through church cookbooks and hand written notes. Of course, one could get a recipe out of a book or magazine, but not ones “reviewed” by the community by word of mouth after church potlucks and funeral dinners.

Third, these recipes often are from a time before processed foods. If we want to eat healthier, it might not hurt to start with these older recipes that use basic ingredients. You might see the occasional “cream of something soup” called for, but not often, especially in the oldest ones. The recipes, with few exceptions, are simple and call for basic pantry staples.

I hope you enjoy the ones I share, and if you have one you’d like to contribute, please let me know.

_{The recipe. I followed it exactly as written, although I wasn’t sure what a “moderate oven” temperature would be. I finally went with 350 and baked for about a half an hour, testing frequently to see if a toothpick inserted would come out clean.}

Mrs. Hugh Karrick's Gingerbread (Salt Lick Homemakers)

2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter or shortening
2/3 cup molasses
2 tsp. baking powder 2 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, well beaten
3/4 cup sour milk [buttermilk]

Sift flour once, measure, add baking powder, soda, spices, and salt, then sift together three times. Cream butter thoroughly, add sugar gradually and beat together until light and fluffy. Add egg and molasses, then flour alternatively with the buttermilk, a small amount at a time. Beat after each addition until smooth. Bake in a moderate over [I baked at 350 for about 30 - 35 minutes or until a toothpick came out clean].

_{The finished product was cake-like and tasty. Elliott likes to go shirtless but insisted on an apron for cooking! I’m going to try to make one for her that fits.}

^{We also made homemade whipped cream, which is super easy to make. 1 cup of heavy whipping cream, 2 tablespoons of sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla. Beat until soft peaks form. We overbeat ours a little but we didn’t care.}

I took the cookbook to my dad, Joe Karrick, because of the advertising in the back featuring Salt Lick businesses. I wanted to know more about some of them and thought it would also be helpful in dating the cookbook, which Dad decided was probably published in the 1950s.