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Dessert

Ginger Nuts

A spiced cookie made with butter, sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, stir together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the ground ginger, cinnamon, mixed cloves and allspice, and enough flour to form a dough.

  3. Knead the dough well and shape it into small cakes.

Bake

  1. Place the cakes on greased baking sheets.

  2. Brush the tops with a mixture of molasses and water before baking.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until done.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the dough stay tender and hold its shape.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps it brown during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture and a deep color to the cakes' tops.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets during baking.
Ground ginger
Supplies the spicy aroma that defines the cake.

The step that matters

Brushing the tops with molasses and water before baking. Sugars in molasses caramelize and darken in the oven, so an uneven or overly thick coat can scorch or bake unevenly. A thin, even brush gives a glossy, uniformly browned top.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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