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Dessert

Montgomery Inn Soft Ginger Cake

A soft ginger cake made with dark brown sugar, molasses, sour milk, lard, butter, eggs, flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and soda vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.) · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 18 ingredients
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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 ↓

Montgomery Inn Soft Ginger Cake

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine one cup dark brown sugar, one cup molasses, one cup sour milk, ¾ cup lard and butter, three eggs, 3½ cups flour, one tablespoonful ginger, one tablespoonful cinnamon, one teaspoonful cloves, and two teaspoonfuls soda dissolved in vinegar.

  2. Bake about 30 minutes. Use your own judgment in regard to flour, as there is a difference in texture and some brands thicken more quickly than others.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1185Calories
36 gProtein
47 gFat
155 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Sour Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
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 Jacqueline Harrison Smith (ed.). 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and rich sweetness to the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Soda dissolved in vinegar
Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that makes the cake rise.

The step that matters

Judging the flour amount. Flour brands absorb liquid differently and thicken batter at different rates, which changes the final texture. Adding flour by feel rather than by a fixed amount helps keep the cake soft instead of dense.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon, clove, vinegar):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon, clove, vinegar. 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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