Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
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. 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
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the batter
In a bowl, mix the molasses, butter, and sour milk until well combined.
Dissolve the baking soda in the sour milk and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the ground ginger and salt.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until smooth.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Molasses
- Provides sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the batter.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the sour milk to produce gas that lifts the batter as it bakes.
- Flour
- Builds the structure that sets the batter into a cake-like crumb.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the crumb.
- Sour milk
- Supplies acidity to activate the baking soda and adds moisture.
The step that matters
Dissolving the baking soda in the sour milk. Baking soda needs an acid to release carbon dioxide. Dissolving it fully in the acidic sour milk before mixing spreads the leavening evenly, so the bread rises uniformly rather than developing dense pockets or a bitter, soapy taste.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, milk, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Jalapenofits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, milk, 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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