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Dessert

Sponge Gingerbread

A sponge gingerbread made with flour, butter, molasses, sugar, sour milk, baking soda, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Sponge Gingerbread

Why it works: Butter and milk 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 ↓

Sponge Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Mix together the sugar, molasses, and butter in a bowl.

  2. Add the cinnamon and beat well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk.

  4. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture.

  5. Gradually sift in the flour and mix until combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a shallow bread tin.

  2. Bake.

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

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the sponge together as the batter sets.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to release gas, lifting the batter so it rises.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds moisture to the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, and moisture, and contributes to the gingerbread flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richer flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk, then add it promptly. Baking soda reacts with the acid in sour milk to release carbon dioxide bubbles. If the mixture sits too long before baking, or the flour is added slowly, some of that gas escapes and the sponge rises less.

“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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