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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet, spiced cookie made with molasses, sugar, butter, lard, egg, ginger, baking soda, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, mix molasses, sugar, and the butter-lard mixture.

  2. Add the egg and boiling water, then stir well.

  3. Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.

  4. Stir in the ginger.

  5. Gradually add flour until the dough is soft but moldable.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape the dough into small balls and place them on a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until firm. Let cool before serving.

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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Adds dark color, moisture, and a rich, sweet, slightly bitter flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and crisp at the edges.
Butter and lard mixed
Provides fat for tenderness and a short, crumbly texture.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure as the cookies set.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the dough and aid spreading and browning.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda fully before adding it. Baking soda must be evenly dispersed in the dough to react with the acidic molasses. Clumps can leave bitter, soapy spots and uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, egg, 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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