Photo: WBZ NewsRadio \ Brooke McCarthy
SALEM, Mass, (WBZ NewsRadio) - A 200-year-old gingerbread cookie recipe was discovered just in time for the holidays in Salem.
The recipe was found in the cookbook of Sally Fisk Ropes Orne, a prominent member of Salem during the early eighteen hundreds. She lived in the Ropes mansion on Essex Street with her family, which is now a historic landmark in Salem.
"Sally left behind a whole notebook of some of her recipes from her life," Meg Boeni, of the Peabody Essex Museum, told WBZ's Brooke McCarthy.
Boeni found Sally's gingerbread cookie recipe and decided to try and replicate it for the holidays. Since the recipe dates back to the eighteenth-century, some of the ingredients the recipe calls for are less commonly used in modern baking.
"It has four, it has butter, it also doesn't have sugar," Boeni said. "Because sugar was a premium product in the eighteen hundreds it was a little harder to find, a little more expensive, so it has molasses."
After a few tries, she was able to successfully recreate the 200-year-old recipe.
"We can still make these cool, historic recipes and they can still be sort of kept alive as a part of American history," Boeni said.
The recipe is on the Peabody Essex Museum website for anyone who is interested in recreating the holiday treat.
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