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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet cookie made with sugar, molasses, butter, lard, eggs, sour milk, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Ginger Cookies

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a large bowl, mix together sugar, molasses, and the butter and lard mixture.

  3. Add the eggs and sour milk, then stir in baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and vanilla.

  4. Gradually add flour until the dough is no longer sticky.

Bake and store

  1. Cut the dough into squares and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until golden.

  3. Let cool, then frost if desired.

  4. Store in a stone jar for long-lasting freshness.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  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 sweetness, moisture and a deep flavour to the dough.
Butter and lard
Provides fat that keeps the cookies tender and adds richness.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as it sets in the oven.
Sour milk
Adds moisture and acidity that reacts with the baking soda.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to lift the cookies and aid browning.
Flour
Gives the dough its structure so it can be cut and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Gradually add flour until the dough is no longer sticky. Adding flour in small amounts lets you stop when the dough is workable. Too much flour makes cookies dry and dense, while too little leaves the dough too sticky to cut and shape.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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