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Dessert

Molasses Squares

A sweet baked square made from molasses, lard, brown sugar, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Molasses Squares

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

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.

Make the dough

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

  2. In a bowl, rub together the brown sugar and lard until well combined.

  3. Add the molasses to the mixture and stir well.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk and add it to the mixture.

  5. Mix the cream of tartar with enough flour to create a stiff dough that can be rolled out.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut it into squares.

  2. Place the squares on buttered sheet pans.

  3. In a small bowl, mix the egg yolk with the cream and wash the tops of the squares.

  4. 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.

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

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 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

Molasses
Provides the main sweetness, dark color and rich flavor of the squares.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a crumbly texture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and milk to produce gas that makes the squares rise.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to help the squares rise.
Flour
Forms the structure of the dough so it stiffens enough to roll and cut.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture and helps the squares brown.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sweet milk. Baking soda must be fully dissolved before mixing so it spreads evenly through the dough. Unevenly distributed soda leaves pockets that taste bitter and rise unevenly.

“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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