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Dessert

Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread loaf made with molasses, brown sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Pour boiling water over butter in a bowl and let it melt.

  2. Add molasses and brown sugar, then stir in baking soda dissolved in vinegar.

  3. Quickly mix in flour and spices until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the batter well before pouring it into shallow pans.

  2. Bake until done and serve with whipped cream or pudding sauce.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the batter together as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and deep flavor of the bread.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acid in the batter to release gas that makes the bread rise.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, helping keep the crumb soft.
Vinegar
Acts as the acid that activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Quickly mix in flour and spices. Baking soda reacts with the acid as soon as it is wet, releasing gas. Mixing promptly and then pouring the batter into the pans keeps that gas in the batter so it rises well, rather than escaping before baking.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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