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Dessert

White Gingerbread

A sweet gingerbread cake made with flour, butter, sugar, ginger, eggs, pearl-ash, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Leslie · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 6 ingredients
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White Gingerbread

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 ↓

White Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Sift two pounds of flour into a deep pan.

  2. Rub in three quarters of a pound of butter.

  3. Mix in a pound of common white sugar powdered.

  4. Add three tablespoonfuls of the best white ginger.

  5. Beat four eggs very light.

  6. Gradually mix the beaten eggs with the other ingredients in the pan.

  7. Add a small teaspoonful of pearl-ash melted in a wine glass of warm milk.

  8. Stir the mixture as hard as possible.

Shape and bake

  1. Flour a paste-board and lay the lump of dough on it.

  2. Roll the dough out into a sheet one inch thick, adding more flour if necessary.

  3. Butter a large shallow square pan and lay the dough into the pan.

  4. Cut the dough into separate cakes with a jagging iron before baking.

  5. Ensure the cakes are not laid too close together in the pan to avoid them running together.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven.

  7. When cold, cut into squares.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

686Calories
19 gProtein
18 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 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

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

By Eliza Leslie. 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Flour + sugartop 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness by coating the flour and shortening the crumb.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add moisture and lift to the crumb.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
Pearl-ash (in the method)
Reacts with the mixture to lighten and open the texture as the cakes rise.

The step that matters

Stir the mixture as hard as possible. Vigorous mixing develops the gluten in the flour and helps the eggs and alkaline pearl-ash spread evenly through the dough. Thorough mixing gives an even rise and crumb.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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

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