Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Drop Ginger Cakes
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.
Prepare
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake
In a large bowl, mix together the eggs, flour, lard, sugar, sour cream, baking soda mixture, ginger, cinnamon, and molasses until well combined.
Drop a tablespoonful of the mixture onto a greased baking pan.
Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.
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.
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Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set in the oven.
- Lard
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and moisture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cake brown during baking.
- Sour cream
- Adds moisture and acidity that tenderises the crumb.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic vinegar and sour cream to lift the batter.
- Molasses
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist texture.
The step that matters
Bake until golden brown. Baking soda reacts quickly once it meets the acid, so the batter should go into the oven promptly to trap gas and rise. Stopping on colour alone can leave the centre underbaked, so check doneness through the cake, not just the surface.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, flour, sugar, cream, vinegar, cinnamon, molasses):
- Nutmegfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Cardamomfits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, sugar, cream, vinegar, cinnamon, molasses. 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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