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Dessert

Soft Ginger Cookies

A simple ginger cookie made with molasses, lard, sugar, hot water, ginger, baking soda, cream of tartar, salt, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Soft Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Soft Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine molasses, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  2. Add lard, sugar, hot water, ginger, and a pinch of salt.

  3. Gradually add flour until the dough is manageable.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough, but do not roll it too thin.

  2. Cut into desired shapes and 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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness and depth of flavour, and keeps the cookies soft.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and cream of tartar to produce gas that lifts the dough.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that reacts with the baking soda to help the cookies rise and stay tender.
Lard
Provides fat that tenderises the dough and adds a soft, short texture.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as the cookies bake.

The step that matters

Do not roll the dough too thin. Thin dough dries out and crisps quickly in the oven, losing the soft texture the recipe depends on. A thicker cut keeps moisture in the centre while the edges set.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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

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