Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the dough
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, and butter until well combined.
Add the sour milk, ginger, cinnamon, and egg, and mix until smooth.
Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of boiling water and add it to the mixture.
Gradually add flour until the dough is soft but not sticky.
Shape and bake
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Molasses
- Adds dark color, moisture and a deep sweet flavor to the dough.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the cookie.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the cookies rise and soften.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas for lift and spread.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure as it bakes.
- Ginger
- Provides the main spicy aroma that defines the cookie.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda. Baking soda needs an acid to react and leaven properly. Dissolving it fully in a small amount of boiling water and mixing it evenly into the acidic sour milk and molasses spreads the reaction through the dough, so the cookies rise evenly rather than in patches with a bitter soda taste.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, butter, milk, cinnamon, egg, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Clovefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, milk, cinnamon, egg, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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