Name: Ginger Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup wheat grainia; 1 cup fine flour; 1 teaspoon ginger; honey (enough to make a stiff dough)

Why it works: Wheat and honey work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 346 recipes. Both carry 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline, which smells popcorn, roasted. The science ↓

Ginger Cake

Ingredients

1 cup wheat grainia
1 cup fine flour
1 teaspoon ginger
honey (enough to make a stiff dough)

Directions

In a bowl, combine wheat grainia, fine flour, and ginger.
Add honey gradually until a stiff dough forms.
Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.
Serve fresh or allow to dry.

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.

Wheat + honeytop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together346 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ginger + honeytop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,163 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Wheat + gingertop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together255 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,373 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).