Name: Ginger Snaps No. 2
Ingredients: 2 cups molasses; 1 cup sugar; ½ cup butter; 1 quart flour; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 teaspoon cloves; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 teaspoon nutmeg; 1 teaspoon baking soda

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps No. 2

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

In a pan, combine molasses, sugar, and butter; bring to a boil.
In a bowl, mix flour, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Add baking soda to the hot mixture, then pour it over the flour and spices.
Stir in enough flour to form a stiff dough.
Roll the dough very thin and bake until crisp.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together8,686 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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Provides dark sweetness, moisture and the characteristic flavor of the snaps.
Butter: Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.
Flour: Forms the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the hot molasses mixture to lighten the dough and aid browning.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough bakes through and dries out enough to turn crisp; thick dough stays chewy in the center.

Swap the ginger

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

Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Gingerthe original
Fennelfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, flour, clove, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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.