Name: Ginger Snaps
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; ¾ cup sugar; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 teaspoon allspice; 1 teaspoon ground cloves; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ cup melted butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; Flour (as needed)

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

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.

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, combine molasses and baking soda; beat until it foams.
Add sugar, ginger, allspice, ground cloves, cinnamon, and melted butter; mix well.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is very thick and can be worked in.
Roll out the dough and cut into shapes the size of a quarter.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,874 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, butter, flour):

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original
Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, allspice, clove, cinnamon, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.