Name: Ginger Snaps
Ingredients: 1 pint molasses; 1½ cups brown sugar; 1 cup lard; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon ground ginger; 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon; 1 scant teaspoon allspice; 2 quarts all-purpose flour

Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine molasses, brown sugar, and lard.
Dissolve baking soda in hot water and add to the mixture.
Stir in ginger, cinnamon, and allspice.
Gradually add flour until the dough is stiff and does not stick to your hands.
Knead the dough until well combined.
Roll out the dough and cut into shapes with a cookie cutter.

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.

Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,536 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the ginger

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

Nutmegfits better
Clovefits better
Cardamomfits about as well
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, cinnamon, allspice, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.