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Dessert

Spice Gingerbread

A gingerbread cake made with butter, lard, flour, molasses, sugar, spices, and sour milk, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Spice Gingerbread

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

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

  3. Add the sugar, molasses, and sour milk, mixing well.

  4. In another bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and spices.

  5. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until smooth.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a greased dripping pan.

  2. Bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Let cool before serving; the flavor improves with age.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 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

Flour
Forms the structure that holds the batter's shape as it bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a deep sweet flavor that helps browning.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Butter and lard
Fats that add richness, tenderness, and moisture to the crumb.
Sugar
Sweetens the batter and promotes browning during baking.

The step that matters

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture. Adding flour in portions and stirring just until smooth keeps the batter evenly mixed and limits gluten development, which keeps the crumb tender rather than tough.

Swap the allspice

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Allspicethe original
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, molasses, sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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