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Dessert

Alum Gingerbread

A gingerbread dough made with molasses, lard, ginger, salt, alum, baking soda, and flour, baked at 400°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Alum Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the leavening

  1. In half of the boiling water, dissolve the alum.

  2. In the other half, dissolve the baking soda.

Make and shape the dough

  1. Combine the molasses, melted lard, ginger, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Stir in the dissolved alum and baking soda mixtures.

  3. Add enough flour to form a kneadable dough.

  4. Roll the dough to about ½ inch thick.

  5. Cut into oblong shapes and bake in a 400°F (200°C) 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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the dough.
Melted lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich texture.
Pulverized alum
Reacts with the baking soda to help the dough rise and set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic alum to release gas, leavening the gingerbread.
Ginger
Adds the main spiced aroma that defines gingerbread.

The step that matters

Stir in the dissolved alum and baking soda mixtures. Alum and baking soda react quickly to release carbon dioxide, so the mixture should be combined and shaped without long delay to keep the gas trapped for rising.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, flour):

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour. 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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