Gingerbread is an ancient food, first seen in the days of the ancient Roman Empire in a cookbook called Cooking and Dining in the Roman Empire. Ginger, the main ingredient in gingerbread, was very popular and plentiful at the time, but it disappeared from Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire until Marco Polo brought it back to the continent from China again in about 1295.

During the Middle Ages,

Since gingerbread kept for a long time, many young ladies would give decorated gingerbread, especially with real gold, to knights taking part in horseback jousting just before they were due to take the field. As a result, gingerbread has become a very iconic symbol,

and has given rise to

many gingerbread-themed bazaars. Some villages even have a tradition of inviting unmarried women to eat gingerbread shaped "husbands" at the fair to give them a chance to meet the right man for them.

Gingerbread was first mentioned in an English recipe book in 1430. In 1573, gingerbread was seen again in a diary, where it was said that someone with a hangover felt better after eating a food made from dough mixed with ginger and flour. Queen Elizabeth I is also credited with "inventing" the gingerbread man, asking bakers to bake portraits in her likeness.

By 1796, the first recipe book printed and distributed in the United States, American Cookery, mentioned four ways to make gingerbread, and the popularity of gingerbread continued into the next century. Gingerbread to this day, like gingerbread houses, gingerbread men or even undecorated general gingerbread, have not been forgotten, still in the holiday season occupies an important position, most families in the Christmas period will also make their own gingerbread oh.