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Dessert

Sour Cream Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with molasses, shortening, sugar, ginger, sour cream, baking soda, egg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Sour Cream Gingerbread

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together molasses, shortening, sugar, ginger, and egg.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add to the mixture.

  3. Gradually add flour until you achieve a medium stiff batter.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased dripping pan, ensuring it is about 1½ inches thick.

  2. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

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.

  1. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Provides dark color, moisture, and the characteristic sweet, deep gingerbread flavor.
Shortening
Adds fat for tenderness and moisture in the crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour cream to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown during baking.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Forms the structure of the cake as its proteins and starches set during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda fully before adding it. Baking soda must be evenly dissolved so it reacts with the acidic molasses throughout the batter. Undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots and uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, meat, sugar, egg, flour):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, meat, sugar, 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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