Name: Sugar Ginger Bread
Ingredients: one pound flour; quarter pound butter; half pound brown sugar; half teaspoonful soda dissolved in milk; one cup dark molasses; one cup dark brown sugar; one cup lard; two tablespoonsful of ginger; one small teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Sugar Ginger Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

Combine one pound flour, quarter pound butter, half pound brown sugar, and half teaspoonful soda dissolved in milk.
Mix with milk or warm water so the dough is stiff enough to roll very thin.
Bake in a quick oven.

Make the molasses mixture

Combine one cup dark molasses, one cup dark brown sugar, one cup lard, and two tablespoonsful of ginger.
Boil all together just five minutes.
Let it get perfectly cold, and work in as much flour as it will require to work it on the board.
Also put one small teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water.

Bake

Roll thin and bake in a quick oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

930Calories

21 gProtein

34 gFat

135 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Lard	1 tbsp (12.8g)	115
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0

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

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Dark molasses: Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweetness to the cake.
Lard: Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and keeps it moist.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.

The step that matters

Boil all together just five minutes. Boiling briefly dissolves the sugar and blends the molasses and fat evenly. Boiling too long can darken and thicken the mixture, changing the texture of the finished cake.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original
Jalapenofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, butter, sugar, milk, molasses. 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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Sugar Ginger Bread