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 ↓
New York Ginger Bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the batter
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, rub together the sugar and butter until creamy.
Add the eggs gradually, mixing well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, mix the cream of tartar with the flour.
Dissolve the sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) and ginger in the milk, then add to the butter and egg mixture.
Finally, add the flour mixture and stir until combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into deep pans and bake until golden.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
- Cream of tartar
- Acidifies the batter so that the baking soda reacts and helps the cake rise.
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the cake as its proteins set during baking.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and creaming it with sugar traps air.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cake and helps it brown while creaming aerates the batter.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs gradually. Adding eggs slowly and mixing well after each one lets the emulsion stay stable. A broken batter can curdle and bake up dense and uneven.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, milk, cream, 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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