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Dessert

Thick Gingerbread

A sweet, spiced loaf made with treacle, butter, brown sugar, flour, ginger, allspice, soda, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Isabella Beeton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Thick Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Put the flour into a basin, with the sugar, ginger, and allspice; mix these together.

  2. Warm the butter, and add it, with the treacle, to the other ingredients. Stir well.

  3. Make the milk just warm, dissolve the carbonate of soda in it.

  4. Mix the whole into a nice smooth dough with the eggs, which should be previously well whisked.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a buttered tin.

  2. Bake it from 3/4 to 1 hour, or longer, if the gingerbread is very thick.

  3. Just before it is done, brush the top over with the yolk of an egg beaten up with a little milk. Put it back in the oven to finish baking.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

283Calories
14 gProtein
14 gFat
27 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Allspice1 tsp ground (1.9g)5
Ginger1 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 Isabella Beeton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + gingertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,519 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  4. Milk + allspicetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,947 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Egg + allspicetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

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

What each ingredient does

Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the warm milk to release gas, helping the gingerbread rise and become light.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
Treacle (in the method)
Adds sweetness, dark colour and moisture, giving the gingerbread its characteristic flavour.
Butter (in the method)
Adds fat for tenderness and a richer crumb.

The step that matters

Brushing the top with egg glaze. Brush only shortly before the end of baking. Egg yolk browns and sets quickly, so applying it too early can over-darken or burn the top before the crumb is cooked through.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, 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.

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