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Dessert

Soft Gingerbread

A moist gingerbread cake made with molasses, sweet milk, shortening, sugar, ginger, cloves, baking soda, eggs, cinnamon, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Soft Gingerbread

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.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, sweet milk, and shortening.

  3. Add the sugar, ginger, cloves, baking soda, eggs, and cinnamon; stir until well combined.

  4. Gradually add flour until the mixture is soft but not sticky.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30‑40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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 a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Eggs
Add structure and help bind the batter as it sets in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Shortening
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the gingerbread soft.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter into a cake as it bakes.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until soft but not sticky. Adding flour gradually lets you judge the dough's texture. Too much flour makes the gingerbread dry and dense, while too little leaves it sticky and gummy in the center.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, milk, sugar, clove, egg, cinnamon, 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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