Name: The Dewey Cook Book
Ingredients: 1 teaspoonful baking-powder; half cup of flour; three cups sugar; two cups flour; one cup water; two cups of flour to which has been added two teaspoonfuls of baking powder; two teaspoonfuls of baking powder; one cup of sugar add one-half cup of water; one pint of confectioners' molasses; one cup of butter; one teaspoonful of soda; one teaspoonful of cloves; a cup of sugar; a cup of flour; a tablespoonful of sweet cream; 4 eggs; 2 eggs; six eggs; two cake; one-half cup of water; two eggs; one level teaspoonful of ginger; lemon juice; ginger; cloves

Why it works: Clove and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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).
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).

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

Eggs: Yolks and whipped whites give the batter its light, airy structure.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the sponge once the batter is baked.
Sugar: Sweetens the batter and helps the yolks stay light when beaten with it.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the sponge.

The step that matters

Fold in the flour lightly. Over-mixing after the flour is added knocks air out of the whipped whites and develops gluten, making the ladyfingers dense instead of light and tender.

Swap the clove

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, molasses, butter, cream, egg, ginger. 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
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0
Cake	not in our table	0

The Dewey Cook Book