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Dessert

Extra Ginger Cake

A moist ginger cake made with molasses, spices, lard, sour cream, eggs, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon 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 ↓

Extra Ginger Cake

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.

Prepare

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

  2. In a large bowl, combine molasses, ginger, grated nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, and salt.

Make the batter

  1. Add sorla, lard, sour cream, and beaten eggs to the mixture, then mix well until thoroughly combined.

  2. Gradually add flour until the batter is stiff.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased tin or stove pans.

  2. Bake in the preheated oven until done.

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. Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and deep flavor of the cake.
Eggs
Add structure and binding as they set during baking.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the stiff batter together as it bakes.
Lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb and richness.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and a slight tang that keeps the crumb soft.
Ginger
Contributes the warm, spicy aroma that defines the cake.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour gluten develops with mixing, so overworking the batter after adding flour can make the cake tough and dense. Add the flour gradually and stop once the batter is just stiff enough.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, ginger, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, cream, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, ginger, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, cream, 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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