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Dessert

Nuremberg Ginger Bread

A sweet, spiced bread with almonds, candied orange peel, and gingerbread spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,673 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Nuremberg Ginger Bread

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.

Make the batter

  1. Beat the eggs very light without separating.

  2. Add mace, cloves, and chopped candied orange peel.

  3. Gradually add the sugar and beat until very light.

  4. Sift in the flour, salt, and baking powder.

  5. Fold in the blanched and split almonds.

Bake

  1. Bake in shallow pans at 350°F (175°C) until done.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Clove + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Mace + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Clove + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,605 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Beaten light to trap air, giving the batter lift and a tender crumb structure.
Sugar
Beaten with the eggs for sweetness and to help build a light, airy batter.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter to help it rise in the oven.
Candied orange peel
Adds sweet citrus aroma and chewy bits of flavour throughout the batter.
Almonds
Add nutty flavour and a firm, crunchy texture in the finished bake.

The step that matters

Beat the eggs very light without separating. Whole eggs beaten until thick and pale trap air that expands in the oven, so the batter rises and stays light. Under-beaten eggs give a dense result.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, clove, orange, sugar, flour, almond):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, clove, orange, sugar, flour, 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.

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