Cakey or crunchy, shaped like a little man or a huge candy mansion, gingerbread is a delicious hallmark of the December holidays in many parts of the world. For those who are eternally grateful to whoever made it acceptable to eat pieces of cookie so large that they resemble the side of a house, the history of gingerbread is a great story. At the least, it makes for intelligent conversation at parties, to overcome prejudice against people with cookie crumbs on our shirts.

Ginger, the essential ingredient, is a root known for millennia in the Middle and Far East. It was, and still is, considered medicine to combat nausea and inflammation. Spices were highly precious until only a couple of hundred