Name: Ginger Cake
Ingredients: half cups of sugar; half cup of butter to a cream; one cup of sour milk; two eggs; one small tablespoon of ginger; one heaping tablespoon of cinnamon; one heap- ing teaspoon of soda; ginger; cinnamon

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 ↓

Ginger Cake

Ingredients

Directions

MRS. HARKNESS.
Beat one and a half cups of sugar and a half cup of butter to a cream and add two eggs, one small tablespoon of ginger, one heaping tablespoon of cinnamon, one cup of sour milk, one heap- ing teaspoon of soda and flour enough to make it as stiff as cup cake.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

437Calories

15 gProtein

30 gFat

28 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Sour Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2

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

By Des Moines. Plymouth church. [from old catalog]. 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.

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.

Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,655 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 (sugar, butter, cream, milk, egg, cinnamon):

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Clovefits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, cream, milk, egg, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.