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 ↓
Good Every-day Ginger-bread
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sugar, baking soda, and ginger.
In another bowl, combine the sour milk, molasses, butter, and eggs.
Gradually add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, mixing until well combined.
Pour the batter into shallow pans.
Bake
Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + milktop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure that holds the gingerbread together as it bakes.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark color to the crumb.
- Sour milk
- Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the cake rises and stays tender.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lightens the batter.
- Eggs
- Bind the batter and add structure and richness as they set in the oven.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor in the crumb.
The step that matters
Combining wet and dry ingredients. Mixing until just combined keeps the batter tender. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which can make the gingerbread tough and dense.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, molasses, butter, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, molasses, butter, egg. 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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