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Dessert

Ginger Nuts

A sweet cookie made with flour, butter, brown sugar, molasses, ground ginger, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Nuts

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

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

Make the dough

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

  2. Add the molasses and ground ginger, mixing well.

  3. Incorporate the allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. Gradually add the flour, mixing until combined.

  5. Roll the dough thin and cut into small cakes.

Bake

  1. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together as the cookies set.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and rich flavor in the cookie.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and a dark color to the cookies.
Ground ginger
Provides the main warm, spicy aroma and flavor of the cookies.

The step that matters

Roll the dough thin. Thin dough bakes evenly and turns crisp, while thick pieces stay soft and doughy in the centre. Cut the cakes to a uniform size so they bake at the same rate.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, molasses, allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon. 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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