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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A ginger snap cookie made with molasses, ginger, soda, egg, butter, lard, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Boil one pint of molasses.

  2. When cooled to milk-warm, beat into it one beaten egg and one teacup butter and lard, mixed and melted.

  3. Add two tablespoons ginger.

  4. Work in one teaspoonful soda dissolved in a tablespoonful hot water.

  5. Add enough sifted flour to enable you to roll out the dough easily.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough wafer thin.

  2. Stamp out the snaps and bake quickly.

  3. Remove carefully from the pan and lay on sheets of paper until cold and crispy.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

187Calories
6 gProtein
5 gFat
29 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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 + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,337 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Molasses + eggtop 34% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,879 recipes

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the dark color, rich flavor and sweetness that define the snaps.
Egg
Adds binding and structure to hold the dough together.
Butter and lard (in the method)
Adds fat for tenderness and a crisp texture after baking.
Ginger
Supplies the spicy aroma and warm flavor central to the snaps.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lighten the dough and help it spread and crisp.
Flour (in the method)
Forms the structure of the dough, set by baking.

The step that matters

Bake quickly after stamping. Wafer-thin dough has little mass, so it can burn quickly. Short, hot baking keeps the snaps crisp and evenly browned rather than dark and bitter.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg. 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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