Name: Soft Gingerbread, or Molasses Cake
Ingredients: 2 cups sour milk; 1 cup Porto Rico molasses; 1 cup brown sugar; ½ cup chicken fat or lard; 2 teaspoons salt; 1 tablespoon ginger; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 tablespoon cold water; flour (enough to make the dough pour somewhat slowly)

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Soft Gingerbread, or Molasses Cake

Ingredients

Directions

Dissolve the baking soda in cold water.
In a mixing bowl, cream the chicken fat or lard with the brown sugar and salt using a wooden spoon.
Add the sour milk, molasses, ginger, and dissolved baking soda to the mixture.
Gradually add flour until the dough is pourable but thick.

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.

Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chicken + gingertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,494 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Milk + chickentop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,389 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Gingerthe original
Nutmegfits less well
Jalapenofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, sugar, chicken, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.