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Dessert

Carraway Ginger-bread

A spiced gingerbread loaf flavored with caraway seeds, made with butter, treacle, brown sugar, flour, eggs, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 ↓

Carraway Ginger-bread

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 batter

  1. Cut the butter into the treacle and warm slightly until the butter is soft.

  2. Stir well and gradually add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and ground ginger.

  3. Sift the flour into a bowl.

  4. Beat the eggs until thick and light, then gradually stir them into the mixture alternately with the flour and caraway seeds.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in enough lukewarm water to cover it, then stir it into the mixture. Mix everything thoroughly.

Bake

  1. Transfer the batter to a buttered loaf pan and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + carawaytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together188 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Flour + carawaytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,435 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Ginger + carawaytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together288 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the gingerbread crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Beaten until thick, they add lift and bind the batter into a set crumb.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic treacle to release gas, helping the batter rise and darken.
Treacle
Adds moisture, sweetness, and depth of flavour, and helps the crumb stay tender.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that tenderises the crumb and carries flavour.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda. Baking soda must be fully dissolved and stirred in evenly so it reacts with the acidic treacle throughout the batter. Unevenly mixed soda can leave pockets that rise unevenly or taste bitter.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, cinnamon, flour, egg, caraway. 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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