Name: Ginger Pudding
Ingredients: 1 egg; 3 tablespoons sour cream or milk; 3 tablespoons melted butter; ½ cup molasses; 1 teaspoon ground ginger; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 1 cup flour; 1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in hot water

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a bowl, mix the egg, sour cream or milk, melted butter, molasses, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, flour, and baking soda mixture until well combined.
Pour the batter into buttered muffin pans.

Bake and serve

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Serve hot with a sweet sauce.

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.

Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,928 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Egg: Binds the batter and helps give the puddings structure as they set.
Molasses: Adds dark color, moisture and a rich, sweet flavor.
Flour: Forms the main structure of the batter as it bakes.
Baking soda: Reacts with the molasses and hot water to lift the batter so it rises.
Melted butter: Adds fat for tenderness and richness.
Sour cream or milk: Adds moisture and tenderness to the batter.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, butter, molasses, cinnamon, flour):

Nutmegfits better
Allspicefits about as well
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, butter, molasses, cinnamon, flour. 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.