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Dessert

Spice Drops

A drop cookie made with dark sugar, lard, eggs, molasses, milk, baking soda, flour, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, and vanilla extract.

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 the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix together dark sugar, lard, eggs, molasses, milk, and vanilla extract.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in a little milk and add it to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the flour, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger until well combined.

Bake

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

  2. Bake in the preheated oven 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.

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 as they set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and sugar to produce gas, helping the drops rise and spread.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness that helps browning.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the texture and carries flavor.
Dark sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the drops brown as they bake.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly through the batter. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising and bitter spots.

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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