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Dessert

Plain Gingerbread

A simple gingerbread dough made with molasses, lard, butter, ginger, baking soda, sour milk, flour, and brushed with egg white.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Plain Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Warm the molasses, lard, butter, and ginger in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the mixture well for about 10 minutes.

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

  4. Stir in the sour milk and enough flour to form a stiff dough.

Bake and finish

  1. Roll the dough into shape and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  2. Brush the hot gingerbread with egg white.

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

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

  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. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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
Provides the dark color, rich flavor, and moisture that give gingerbread its character.
Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk and molasses acids to produce gas that lightens the dough.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness to the dough.
Flour
Gives the dough structure so it holds its shape as a stiff dough.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and keeps the gingerbread soft.

The step that matters

Beat the mixture well for about 10 minutes. Thorough beating incorporates air and evenly distributes the fats and liquids, which helps the dough rise and bake with an even crumb.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, milk, flour, egg. 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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