The line in 'The Merchant of Venice', 'she were as lying a gossip in that, as ever knapp'd ginger', has been suggested by Richard Grant White in his analysis of Shakespeare of 1859 as; 'Knap is plainly the same word as snap ... As ginger itself is a tough root a ginger cake must be meant and probably the sort called even now ginger snap.'
Original Receipt from ''The Methodist Almanac' of 1861 (USA)Ginger Snap - Two cups molasses, one cup lard, one teaspoonful salt, one tablespoonful of ginger, three teaspoonfuls soda. Let these ingredients come to a boil; then add flour until stiff enough to roll out lioll out very thin, aod bake in a quick oven
2014
SE Kiser's Love Songs of an Office Boy of 1902 has;
Yesterday I watched you when you set
There with your little lunch-box in your lap;
I seen you nibble at a ginger snap,
And wished that where your lips had made it wet
I'd have a chance to take a bite and let
My mouth be right where yours was before;