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Dessert

Choice Ginger- Bread

A moist gingerbread loaf made with molasses, brown sugar, lard, sour milk, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Choice 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a large bowl, mix the molasses, brown sugar, and lard until well combined.

  3. Stir in the sour milk, baking soda, cream of tartar, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. Beat in the eggs until the mixture is smooth.

  5. Fold in any optional ingredients such as currants, raisins, or citron.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30–40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep, sweet flavor.
Lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb and moist texture.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the leavening to help the cake rise and stay tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas for rising.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as the cake sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Checking doneness with a toothpick. Molasses-rich batters brown quickly on the outside while the center stays wet. Testing the center with a toothpick confirms the cake is set through, so it is not underbaked or dried out by overbaking.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, milk, cream, ginger, cinnamon, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, milk, cream, ginger, cinnamon, 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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