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Dessert

Excellent Gingerbread

A sweet, spiced cake made with sugar, butter, molasses, sour milk, eggs, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Excellent Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, butter, molasses, and spices, keeping the mixture slightly warm.

  3. Add the sour milk or buttermilk to the mixture.

  4. Beat the eggs until light and fluffy, then add them to the mixture.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the mixture.

  6. Gradually stir in enough flour to make a good batter, but do not make it too thick.

Bake

  1. Beat the batter well and pour it into a large buttered pan or patty pans.

  2. If desired, dredge raisins in flour and fold them into the batter before baking.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Add structure and richness, binding the batter as they are beaten in.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and sour milk to lift the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich mouthfeel.
Molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and its acidity activates the baking soda.
Sour milk or buttermilk
Supplies acidity to react with the baking soda and adds moisture.
Flour
Forms the batter's structure as its proteins and starches set during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and add it to the mixture. Baking soda needs an acid, such as the molasses and sour milk, to produce gas that leavens the batter. Dissolving it evenly prevents pockets of soda, which can leave bitter or soapy spots and uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, molasses, milk, egg, cinnamon, 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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