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Bread

Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread loaf made with eggs, brown sugar, lard, butter, sour milk, baking soda, ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 Bread

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix the beaten eggs, brown sugar, lard, and butter until well combined.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk or buttermilk and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the ginger, allspice, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. Gradually add flour until the mixture is stiff.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk or buttermilk to release gas, helping the cake rise.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Provides moisture and acidity that activates the baking soda.
Lard and butter
Add fat for tenderness and a rich crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture, and helps browning and a soft texture.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour must be added gradually so the gluten develops only enough to hold the batter together. Adding too much or overmixing can make the bread tough and dense.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Thymefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, milk, allspice, cinnamon, clove. 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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