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Dessert

Ginger-bread

A sweet loaf made with molasses, brown sugar, ginger, allspice, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger-bread

Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger-bread

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

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

  2. Mix the egg and sweet cream together until well combined.

  3. Combine the molasses, brown sugar, butter, sweet milk, baking soda, allspice, and ginger.

Make and bake the batter

  1. Mix all ingredients thoroughly, then gradually add the sifted flour until well incorporated.

  2. Pour the batter into shallow pans and bake 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 the cake sets in the oven.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour, and the characteristic sweet, rich flavour of gingerbread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that leavens the batter.
Sifted flour
Provides the main structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.

The step that matters

Adding the flour gradually and mixing until just incorporated. Flour gluten develops with mixing, so overworking the batter after the flour goes in can make the gingerbread tough and dense. Gradual addition helps the batter combine evenly without lumps.

Swap the allspice

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, molasses, sugar, butter, milk, ginger):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Allspicethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, molasses, sugar, butter, milk, 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.

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