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Dessert

Ginger Crackers

A sweet, spiced cracker made with brown sugar, molasses, lard, baking soda, hot water, and ground ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Crackers

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 dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the brown sugar, molasses, and lard until well combined.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add it to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the ground ginger until evenly distributed.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color and a moist, chewy body to the dough.
Lard
Provides fat that tenderizes the crackers and gives a crisp, short texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift the dough and encourage browning.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the crackers brown during baking.
Ground ginger
Supplies the warm, spicy aroma that defines the crackers.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda fully in the hot water. Baking soda must be evenly dissolved so it reacts uniformly with the acidic molasses; clumps leave bitter spots and uneven rise.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Allspicefits less well
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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