Name: Mbs. Wilder’s Sponge Gingerbread
Ingredients: 2 cups molasses; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 2 teaspoons ground ginger; 4 eggs, well beaten; 1 cup butter, melted; 1 cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon baking soda (for sour milk); Flour (to achieve pound cake consistency)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Mbs. Wilder’s Sponge Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, combine molasses, baking soda, and ground ginger.
Stir until creamy, then add the beaten eggs and melted butter.
In a separate bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in sour milk, then add to the mixture.
Mix everything together, then gradually add flour until the batter reaches the consistency of pound cake.
Pour the batter into two loaf pans.

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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits about as well
Gingerthe original

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