Name: Molasses Cookies
Ingredients: one cup butter; two cups molasses; one teaspoonful cloves; one tablespoonful ginger; four ounces of almonds; four spoonfuls of orange; one pound of white sugar; quarter pound sugar; one pound butter; half pint cold water; quarter pounds flour; one teaspoonful soda dissolved in hot water; four tablespoonfuls caraway seed sprinkled through the flour; a pound of white sugar sifted; four eggs; four eggs to a froth; two eggs; three fted weil he flour; 9 twenty 1 butter; 1 butter

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).
Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,987 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter: Fat that coats the flour and adds richness and tenderness to the cookies.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep, rich flavour.
Flour: Provides the structure that lets the batter hold its shape once stiffened.
Ginger: Adds a warm, spicy aroma to the cookies.

The step that matters

Bake in a steady oven, not a quick one. Molasses and sugar brown and scorch quickly at high heat. A steadier, moderate oven lets the cakes cook through before the outside burns.

Swap the orange

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

Raisinfits better
Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, molasses, clove, ginger, almond, sugar, flour. 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
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Molasses	1 tbsp (20g)	58
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Almond	1 almond (1.2g)	7
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0
Caraway Seed	not in our table	0

Molasses Cookies