Name: Molasses Sponge Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups baking molasses; ½ cup butter; 1 cup buttermilk; 3 cups flour; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon ginger; a pinch of salt

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Molasses Sponge Cake

Ingredients

Directions

In a saucepan, bring the molasses and butter to a boil.
Stir in the ginger.
In a bowl, mix the buttermilk, egg, baking soda, and a pinch of salt.
Add the hot molasses mixture to the bowl and then stir in the flour.
The batter will be thin, but it will bake fine and light.

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.

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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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).
Flour + gingertop 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, butter, buttermilk, flour, egg):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits better
Gingerthe original

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