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Dessert

Spice Drops

A sweet treat made from brown sugar, water, lard or butter, baking soda, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Spice Drops

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, combine brown sugar and water.

  2. Add lard or butter and mix until well combined.

  3. Stir in baking soda and eggs until the mixture is tough and stringy like boiled sugar.

Drop and flavor

  1. Drop spoonfuls onto oiled pans.

  2. Flavor with ginger, cloves, or other spices as desired.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Brown sugar
Provides sweetness, moisture, and the caramel flavor that defines the drops.
Lard or butter
Adds fat for a tender texture and richer flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the mixture and promote browning during baking.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and add structure as it sets.

The step that matters

Stir until tough and stringy. The mixture must reach the thick, stringy stage before dropping. A thinner batter spreads on the pan instead of holding its shape, so the drops lose their form.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, ginger. 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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