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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A crisp cookie made with brown sugar, molasses, butter, ginger, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

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. Preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and brown sugar.

  3. Gradually mix in the molasses and baking soda.

  4. Add 3 pints of flour and mix until smooth.

  5. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour until it can be rolled out thinly.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough out to wafer-like thinness and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until lightly browned, being careful not to burn.

  3. Allow the cookies to cool completely before storing.

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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).

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

Butter
Creams with the sugar to give the dough richness and a tender crumb.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Molasses
Adds deep flavour, moisture and colour to the dough.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the dough and promote browning.
All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together when rolled thin.

The step that matters

Baking until lightly browned. Thin dough cooks quickly at high heat, and sugar and molasses darken fast, so the cookies can scorch before they look done. Checking early keeps them crisp rather than bitter.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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