Name: Ginger Cakes
Ingredients: 2½ lbs. all-purpose flour; 1 lb. unsalted butter; 1 lb. moist sugar; 2 oz. ground ginger; prepared treacle (to make a paste); milk (for washing the top); slices of peel (for topping)

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Ginger Cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

Preheat your oven to 300°F (150°C).
Rub the butter into the flour until well combined.
Add the moist sugar and ground ginger, mixing thoroughly.
Gradually add prepared treacle to form a paste.

Shape and bake

Shape the dough into round flat cakes.
Wash the tops with milk and place a slice of peel on each cake.
Bake in the preheated oven 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour: Forms the structure of the dough as the base that holds the cakes together.
Unsalted butter: Rubbed into the flour to add fat, giving a tender, crumbly texture.
Moist sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cakes brown in the oven.
Ground ginger: Provides the main spiced aroma and flavour of the cakes.
Prepared treacle: Binds the dough into a paste while adding sweetness, moisture and deeper colour.