Skip to main content
Dessert

Old-fashioned Gingerbread

A sweet, spiced dough made with molasses, butter, ginger, baking soda, alum, and water, baked into gingerbread.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Molasses and ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Old-fashioned Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Dissolve the baking soda and powdered alum in the boiling water.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the molasses and butter.

  3. Add the dissolved mixture and ground ginger to the bowl. Mix until smooth, then roll the dough thin.

Bake

  1. Cut into desired shapes and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven 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. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + buttertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Molasses + buttertop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,123 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and releases gas, helping the gingerbread rise and lighten.
Powdered alum
Acts as a leavening aid that helps the dough puff and set during baking.
New orleans molasses
Provides moisture, dark sweetness and a rich flavor, and helps the dough brown.
Ground ginger
Supplies the warm, spicy aroma that defines the gingerbread.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the dough.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda and alum in the boiling water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly through the dough. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising and dark or bitter spots in the finished gingerbread.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes