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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A molasses-based cookie with ginger, cloves, and optional lemon rind.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

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. Beat together the butter, sugar, and molasses until well mixed.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in hot water and stir it into the sour milk.

  3. Add the milk mixture to the butter mixture along with ginger, salt, cloves, and lemon rind if using.

  4. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough thinly and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake in floured tins in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

Store

  1. Store in a stone crock to keep fresh for up to a week.

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. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

  4. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cookies a tender crumb.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and gives the cookies their characteristic flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas, helping the cookies rise and spread.
Sour milk
Provides acidity that activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and lets it be rolled and cut.

The step that matters

Baking soda with sour milk. Dissolving the baking soda in hot water before stirring it into the acidic sour milk lets it react evenly. Uneven mixing leaves pockets of soda that can taste bitter or make the cookies rise unevenly.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, sugar, molasses, milk, ginger, clove, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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