Name: Hotel Ginger Snaps
Ingredients: 1 gallon molasses; 2 pounds brown sugar; 1 quart melted butter; ½ cup ground cloves; ½ cup mace; ½ cup cinnamon; ½ cup ginger; 2 tablespoons baking soda

Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Hotel Ginger Snaps

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.

Make the dough

In a large bowl, combine the molasses, brown sugar, and melted butter.
Add the ground cloves, mace, cinnamon, ginger, and baking soda. Mix until well combined.
Roll the dough into small balls and place them on a baking sheet.

Bake

Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together8,400 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).
Mace + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,611 recipes

Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses: Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweetness to the dough.
Brown sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown and soften.
Melted butter: Provides fat for tenderness and carries the spices through the dough.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the dough and encourage spreading and browning.
Ground cloves: Contributes warm, pungent aroma that defines the snap flavor.
Ginger: Contributes spicy, aromatic warmth that defines the snap flavor.

Swap the mace

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

Allspicefits better
Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Macethe original

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