Skip to main content
Main

Sugar Ginger Bread

A yeast‑leavened bread made with brown sugar, ginger, butter, eggs, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Randolph (1762–1828) · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Sugar Ginger Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Take two pounds of the nicest brown sugar, dry and pound it, then put it into three quarts of flour.

  2. Add a large cup full of powdered ginger and sift the mixture.

  3. Wash the salt out of a pound of butter and cream it.

  4. Beat twelve eggs well.

  5. Work the beaten eggs into the butter first, then the mixture, then the froth from the eggs, until all are incorporated and the dough is quite light.

  6. Add a glass of brandy.

  7. Pour the dough into shallow molds.

  8. Bake in a quick oven.

Make the cakes

  1. Dry half a pound of good brown sugar, pound it, and mix it with two pounds of flour and sift it.

  2. Add two spoonfuls of yeast.

  3. Add as much new milk as will make it like bread.

  4. When well risen, knead in half a pound of butter.

  5. Shape into cakes the size of a half dollar.

  6. Fry them until a light brown in boiling lard.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

686Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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

By Mary Randolph (1762–1828). 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.

  1. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Beaten eggs trap air and lighten the dough so it rises and stays tender.
Butter
Creamed butter adds richness and a tender, crumbly texture.
Yeast
Yeast produces gas as it ferments, causing the dough to rise.
Brown sugar
Brown sugar adds sweetness, moisture and a deeper caramel flavor.
Flour
Flour forms the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes or fries.

The step that matters

Fry the cakes until light brown in boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to brown the outside quickly. If it is too cool, the cakes soak up fat and turn greasy before they cook through.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, egg. 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.

More gingerbread recipes

Soft 197Cake 72Nuts 68Molasses 52Pudding 38Cookies 36 See all 364 →

You might also like

Tomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipesYorkshire PuddingYorkshire Pudding264 recipes