Gingerbread Houses 2013 Forever Stamps — Block of Four, Holiday Issue

Issue facts

Issue Date: November 6, 2013
City: New York, NY
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset
Perforations: Serpentine Die Cut 11
Color: Multicolored

The set

One of a block of four issued for the 2013 holiday season. The houses were not photographed from stock — designers built them specifically for these stamps.

Where gingerbread comes from

The word traces to gingerbras, borrowed from thirteenth-century France, meaning preserved ginger. Before refrigeration, cooks added the spice to dishes partly to cover the smell of meat that had turned. By the following century the term had become gingerbread.

One of the earliest known recipes, from the 15th century, called for boiling breadcrumbs in honey, spicing the mixture and pressing it into carved wooden molds. English bakers of the 16th century swapped the breadcrumbs for flour and added eggs and sugar. Queen Elizabeth I, who took dessert seriously, is credited with the first gingerbread man.

Regional variations

Candy-decorated houses became a holiday fixture soon after. Recipes still differ widely: wine, brandy or ale in some countries; candied citrus peel, pepper or anise in place of ginger in others; honey or molasses instead of sugar. The medieval version and the American one share a name and not much else.

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