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Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread loaf made with molasses, butter, spices, baking soda, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Ginger Bread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, and butter until well combined.

  2. Add the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, and mix well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Gradually stir in the flour until fully incorporated.

  5. Finally, add the eggs and mix until smooth.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

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. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and releases gas, lifting the batter so it rises and becomes light.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cake's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and binding, helping the batter set into a smooth, cohesive crumb.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and sweet, slightly acidic flavour that helps browning.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps browning and moisture retention in the crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in boiling water. Baking soda needs moisture and an acid such as molasses to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the boiling water spreads the leavening evenly, so the gingerbread rises uniformly instead of forming pockets or a dense patch.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, butter, cinnamon, clove, flour, 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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