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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet cookie made with molasses, brown sugar, butter, lard, baking soda, vinegar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

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 Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix molasses, brown sugar, and the butter-lard mixture.

  2. Add baking soda, vinegar, beaten eggs, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and salt. Mix well.

  3. Make a stiff dough and roll it out on a floured surface.

Bake

  1. Cut into desired shapes and bake in a brisk oven at 400 °F (200 °C) until golden.

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.

  1. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
Adds deep sweetness, moisture, and a dark color to the dough.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Butter and lard
Provide fat that gives the cookies tenderness and a short texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic vinegar and molasses to lift and lighten the cookies.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness.

The step that matters

Bake until golden, not longer. Ginger cookies are thin and high in sugar, so they can scorch quickly in a hot oven. Removing them once golden keeps them tender and prevents bitter, burnt edges.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, vinegar, egg, 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.

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