Whats the origin of the gingerbread man?
Dear Straight Dope: I won’t say I’ve exhausted myself trying to research this, but I can see how it could happen. I read a news article on politically correct “gingerbread persons” the other day, and the Reuters source mentioned Grantham, England as the point of origin for this confection, dating that from 1740. No Internet site exists for that town (other than their local football club). Britannica was unhelpful on either a search for Grantham or for gingerbread, or for gingerbread man. Since Nabisco wasn’t around back then, I’m guessing this origin of the cookie story does not relate to a specific industry, but I was curious to know what event or person inspired the gingerbread man. Help! — Rob Sorry, pal, but in all the books of food history and cookie-making that I looked at–and I looked at quite a few–there was no mention of Grantham, nor of 1740. So let’s report what I did find. The root ginger was known in ancient China and India about 7,000 years ago. The name itself, zingibe
