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Dessert

Spice Drops

A sweet drop cookie made with sugar, lard, eggs, molasses, milk, baking soda, flour, spices, and vanilla.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spice Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, lard, eggs, molasses, milk, baking soda (dissolved in a little milk), flour, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and vanilla extract until well combined.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto dusted baking pans.

  2. In warm weather, dredge the drops with granulated sugar to prevent sticking.

  3. Double the pans and bake in the preheated oven.

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 + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the drops together as they bake.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the drops.
Lard
Adds fat that gives the drops a tender, short texture.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep, dark color to the drops.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses to release gas, helping the drops rise and spread.

The step that matters

Dredging in warm weather. Warm, humid conditions make the sticky molasses dough tacky on the surface. Coating the drops with granulated sugar creates a barrier so they do not stick to each other or the pans.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon, allspice. 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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