Name: Gingerbread
Ingredients: 3 ounces butter; 1½ pounds flour; 3 ounces sugar; 1 ounce minced candied peel; 2 teaspoons powdered ginger; a few drops of lemon essence; 1 pound treacle (slightly warmed)

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

Beat the butter until creamy.
Add flour, sugar, candied peel, ginger, and lemon essence; mix well.
Incorporate the warmed treacle to form a smooth paste.
Roll out the paste on a floured surface.
Cut into strips about 3 inches long and 1 inch wide.

Bake and store

Place on a buttered baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until golden.
Store in a tin box.

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.

Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,154 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the paste together as it bakes.
Treacle: Adds moisture, sweetness and a dark color while binding the paste into a smooth dough.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture in the baked strips.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the strips brown to a golden color in the oven.
Powdered ginger: Provides the characteristic spiced aroma and flavor of the gingerbread.