Name: Hard Ginger Bread
Ingredients: 2 cups molasses; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup butter; 1 heaping teaspoon ginger; 2 teaspoons baking soda; 1 cup sour cream; flour (enough to make a stiff dough)

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Hard 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 dough

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the molasses and mix well.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour cream and add to the mixture.
Stir in the ginger.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out.

Shape and bake

Roll out the dough and cut into squares.
Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Molasses: Adds dark color, rich sweetness and moisture to the dough.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic sour cream to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Sour cream: Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness and moisture.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and helps create a tender texture when creamed with sugar.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets it when baked.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff enough to roll out. Adding too much flour at once or too little overall changes the dough's texture. Flour gives structure, so adding it gradually lets you stop when the dough is firm enough to roll without making the bread tough.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, butter, cream, flour):

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, cream, 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.

Ginger Cookies213 recipes

Molasses Cookies96 recipes

Ginger Cake93 recipes

Molasses Cake90 recipes

Like knowing why a recipe works?

The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.

Hard Ginger Bread