Name: Butter Sponge
Ingredients: one pint molasses; one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a cup of cream; a cup of cream; a pound of butter; twelve eggs in sugar; twelve eggs; four eggs; one teacup of ginger

Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Butter Sponge

Ingredients

Directions

The weight of twelve eggs in sugar, six in flour, and six in butter, twelve eggs and one lemon.
GINGERBREAD.
One pint molasses, four eggs, half a pound brown sugar, one teacup of ginger, cloves and allspice, one teaspoonful of soda dissolved in a cup of cream, flour enough to make the batter as thick as pound cake. Then add half a pound of butter. To be baked in moulds.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

340Calories

7 gProtein

22 gFat

29 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
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 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.

Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together118,967 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 (molasses, cream, butter, egg, sugar):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original
Allspicefits about as well

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