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Dessert

Hard Gingerbread

A dense gingerbread dough made with molasses, sugar, sour milk, lard, butter, baking soda, ginger, salt, and flour, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Hard Gingerbread

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Hard Gingerbread

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, sugar, sour milk, and the lard and butter mixture.

  2. Add baking soda, ginger, and salt.

  3. Stir in flour until the dough is thick enough to roll.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough into a square about 1 inch thick.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 10 minutes.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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

Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and a rich, moist body to the dough.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the gingerbread brown during baking.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the dough rises and softens.
Lard and butter, mixed
Adds fat for tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and makes it firm enough to roll.

The step that matters

Stir in flour until the dough is thick enough to roll. Flour builds the gluten and starch structure that holds the dough together. Too little leaves it sticky and hard to shape, while overworking the dough can make the baked gingerbread tough.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Jalapenofits about as well

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

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