M'tucci's Gingerbread Houses
/Among my favorite Christmas memories is making cookies with my grandmother. She would bake dozens of snickerdoodles and sugar cookies in the shapes of wreaths, candy canes, stars and, of course, Santa Claus. I would help decorate the cookies with icing, sprinkles and red hots. Even though much of her cooking skills and recipes came from living with a German family while she was in college, she didn’t make ginger snaps or attempt a gingerbread house.
Ginger was brought from China and was found in Europe around the 900s. Ginger not only added a distinct flavor to food, but it was known to aid in digestion and was used as a preservative for bread and meat. In Germany, gingerbread was baked as early as the 1300s and Nuremburg became known as the “Gingerbread Capital of the World” in the 1600s. There was even a separate group of bakers in the baker’s guild and they were the only bakers allowed to make gingerbread except at Christmas and Easter when anyone could bake it.
The tradition of gingerbread house making began with Europeans baking gingersnap cookies around Christmas. These cookies were decorated with elaborate designs, usually gilded edges with pictures of animals, houses or other architecture. Gingerbread also displayed folk art and the news. This practice led to gingerbread houses, which were created in the 1800s, supposedly inspired by the Brothers Grimm book “Hansel & Gretel”.
Gingerbread is used for creating buildings other than houses, such as castles or even sports stadiums! Bergen, Norway builds an entire gingerbread village every year before Christmas.
In 2013, a group in Bryan, Texas, USA, broke the Guinness World Record set the previous year for the largest gingerbread house, with a 2,520-square-foot (234 m2) edible-walled house in aid of a hospital trauma centre. The gingerbread house had an estimated calorific value exceeding 35.8 million and ingredients included 2,925 pounds (1,327 kg) of brown sugar, 1,800 pounds (820 kg) of butter, 7,200 eggs and 7,200 pounds (3,300 kg) of general purpose flour.
M’tucci’s will help you build your Gingerbread House during the holidays by providing the ingredients in a kit, M’tucci’s Holiday Festivity Kit. It includes everything you need to build a house, plus dough and icing for sugar cookies, dough for chocolate chip cookies and 4 Hot Chocolate Bombs to eat while you make all of these goodies. The kit comes with recipes, instructions and a link to a video showing you how to put it all together. Scroll down for ordering details and to learn about M’tucci’s Ham Holiday Dinner and the Farmer’s Butcher Box, which are both available now.
M’tucci’s Holiday Festivity Kit
Will you build an elaborate Gingerbread House? Share your photos on Facebook or Instagram, tag us (@mtuccis_italian, @mtuccistwentyfive or @mtuccismoderno). First prize for the best decorated Gingerbread House is a $100 Gift Certificate, $50 for 2nd Place and $25 for 3rd Place. Winners will be selected by our Pastry Chef and the deadline for posting your photo is 12/24. Happy Building - and eating! Maybe build something like this?
Shot at the Museum of Idaho by Judy Zechariah
I’m cooking meals from the Farmer’s Butcher Box. So far we quickly ate Chef Cory’s Green Chile Stew, then cooked the bacon, and then I used some of the Italian Sausage to make a favorite Southern Italian dish: Orecchiette with Broccoli Rabe and Sausage. Chef Cory has added recipe cards for each of the items or you can create your own. I’m looking at an Osso Bucco recipe from Northern Italy for the Pork Shanks.
Don’t miss out on ordering the fantastic weekend meal kit. Our meal kits are mostly prepped and portioned for you and you only need to open the box and follow the brief instructions to preparing a meal for four. This week’s meal kit is a Mixed Salad with Marinated Tomatoes and Feta, 4 -12oz. Sackett Farm Bone-In Pork Chops that have been in a Cranberry Brine, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and a pint of M’tucci’s Stracciatella Gelato. Only $49.
You loved our Thanksgiving Charcuterie Retail Packages so much, so we have brought them back for the Holidays, with a few additions.
Weekend Specials
M’tucci’s Italian
12 oz Hand Cut NY Strip - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Grilled Lemon, Balsamic Reduction $29
Pan-Seared Rockfish - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Grilled Artichokes, Sautéed Arugula, Lemon Caper Sauce $19
Gelato: Strawberry & Salted Caramel
Sunday Only: Full Rack of Baby Back Ribs, Salt Water Potatoes, Sautéed Spinach and House BBQ Sauce for $27
M’tucci’s Moderno
10 oz Cold Smoked Sackett Farm Pork Chop - Italian Vegetable Succotash, Apple Bacon Bourbon Mostarda $21
Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, Sautéed Arugula, Roasted Artichokes, Lemon Caper Butter Sauce $23
Gelato: Lemon Berry
Sorbetto: Strawberry Blend
Sunday Only: House Made Lasagna with Herbed Ricotta, Five Pork Bolognese and Roasted Tomato Marinara. $16 (it’s large)
M’tucci’s Twenty-Five
Hand Cut 7 oz Hanger Steak - Crispy Salt Water Potatoes, Grilled Asparagus, Smoked Blackberry Bone Marrow Butter $21
Herb Roasted Game Hen: Grilled Escarole, Braised Gigante Beans, Balsamic Reduction $20
Gelatos: Strawberry
Sorbetto: Lemon
Thanks for reading. See you next Friday. Ciao!
