Skip to main content
Dessert

Nuremberg Gingerbread

A sweet gingerbread dough with eggs, spices, candied citrus, powdered sugar, flour, soda, milk, and almonds, baked into finger-shaped cookies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Nutmeg and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,686 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Nuremberg Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs thoroughly.

  2. Mix in the grated nutmeg, pounded cloves, candied lemon, candied citron, and powdered sugar.

  3. Stir these ingredients briskly for 10 minutes.

  4. Gradually add the dried flour, salt, and carbonate of soda dissolved in warm milk.

  5. Blend the mixture thoroughly, then fold in the sliced almonds.

Shape and bake

  1. Spread the mixture ¼ inch thick on wafer paper and cut into fingers.

  2. Place the fingers on buttered baking tins.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

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. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 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

Eggs
Beaten eggs add structure and lift, binding the dough while holding air for a light texture.
Dried flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the gingerbread bakes and firms up.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps it brown as it bakes.
Carbonate of soda
Reacts with the warm milk to release gas, helping the fingers rise and stay tender.
Sweet almonds
Add texture and a crisp, nutty bite to the baked fingers.
Candied lemon
Adds acidity and bright citrus aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Stir the batter briskly for 10 minutes. Vigorous, sustained beating incorporates air into the eggs and sugar, which gives the batter lift before the flour is added. Under-beating leaves a dense, flat result.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, nutmeg, lemon, sugar, flour, milk, almond):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, nutmeg, lemon, sugar, flour, milk, almond. 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

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes