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Soft Ginger-bread

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and raisin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,242 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Soft Ginger-bread

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.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the molasses, eggs, boiling water, melted lard, and ginger.

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

  4. Stir in enough flour to make a stiff batter, similar to pound cake.

  5. Fold in raisins or currants if desired.

  6. Pour the batter into pie pans and bake until set.

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. Ginger + raisintop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,242 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Molasses + raisintop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + raisintop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,556 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + gingertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,337 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the raisin

The recipe marks raisin as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, egg, ginger):

  1. Raisinthe original
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Lemonfits less well
  4. Figfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, egg, ginger. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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