Gingerbread and polish vodka have a lot in common

Today, thinking about gingerbread, we imagine pastries of various shapes and spicy taste, or a cake layered with jam. However, over the centuries, this well-known delicacy has undergone numerous metamorphoses.

Probably the first gingerbread pastries were made in pre-Christian times. Our distant ancestors were specialists in preparing so-called honey cakes, i.e., cakes based on honey and flour. Sometimes, spices were also added to them.

These cookies were then baked in monasteries. In the 13th century, the tradition finally reached the cities.
The word “gingerbread” comes from the word “pierny”, i.e. peppery, which indicates spice traditions.

However, old recipes show that spices were not always included in gingerbread. What’s more, these cookies baked in Europe differ significantly from each other. Nuremberg gingerbread, for example, is extremely interesting, as it has a flowing consistency and wafers are used for its production.

The symbol of Toruń is the most popular Polish gingerbread – katarzynka. The first cookies of this type were baked here at the end of the 14th century.
Some of them are real works of art.

Today, these forms, like labels or bottles of vodka produced in Poland, are kept in museums. This does not mean, however, that the interesting shapes of gingerbread have been abandoned. Cakes are still being baked in the shape of a carriage or a rider on a horse.

Although today gingerbread is usually served as a sweet treat, it was not always so. There are indications in the sources that breakfast should be started with this delicacy along with vodka. Both of these products were also given to travelers on the road to refresh themselves.

– Gingerbread and Polish Vodka have a lot in common – says Anna Kornelia Jędrzejewska. – Let’s start with the fact that sometimes vodka was added to the cake itself. Gingerbread and vodka were also associated with feasting and feasting in the family circle. These products were also once used as medicines to strengthen the body, they were supposed to have a warming effect – she adds.

Thanks to the inseparable ties with Polish tradition and history, Polska Vodka received a Protected Geographical Indication, i.e. a European mark awarded to regional products of exceptional quality, aimed at preventing unfair commercial practices and which allows consumers to find the highest quality products.

Gingerbread is a cookie ideal for sharing with others, which is why it has been an element of social life for centuries. With or without vodka!