Name: Best Ginger Drops
Ingredients: half cup butter; one teaspoon each cinnamon; two teaspoons soda in a cup boiling water; half cups flour; half pound flour; two well beaten eggs the last thing b&fore baking; four eggs; half gla?s wine; cinnamon; ginger; cloves

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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: Forms the structure that holds the batter's shape while it bakes.
Eggs: Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Butter: Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
Soda: Releases gas in the batter to lift it and help it rise.
Ginger: Provides the warm, aromatic spice flavour that defines the dish.
Cinnamon: Adds warm, sweet spice aroma to the batter.

The step that matters

Add the beaten eggs last, just before baking. Adding the eggs at the end keeps the batter light and preserves the gas from the soda, which lifts the drops. Overmixing or leaving the batter to stand after the eggs go in can deflate it and make the result denser.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cinnamon, flour, egg, wine, clove):

Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits better
Cardamomfits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cinnamon, flour, egg, wine, clove. 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0

Best Ginger Drops