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Dessert

Soft Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, butter, brown sugar, sour milk, flour, baking soda, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Soft Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  2. Stir in the molasses and spices.

  3. Add 1 cup of flour, then part of the sour milk, mixing well.

  4. Combine the baking soda with the remaining flour and alternate adding it with the rest of the milk.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into shallow pans and bake 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. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + allspicetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,302 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

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture and the characteristic deep gingerbread sweetness.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the crumb a tender texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping the cake stay soft.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
Flour
Provides the structure that the batter sets around as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter and set during baking.

The step that matters

Alternating the flour and milk. Adding flour and liquid in portions keeps the batter smooth and well emulsified. Mixing too hard after the flour goes in develops gluten, which can make the cake tough rather than soft.

Swap the allspice

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, ginger. 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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