Name: Chicago Ginger-bread
Ingredients: 1 cup sugar; 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sour milk; ⅔ cup butter and lard; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 teaspoon baking soda; Flour, enough to stiffen

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Chicago Ginger-bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a bowl, mix sugar, molasses, sour milk, and butter and lard until well combined.
Dissolve 1 teaspoon of baking soda in the sour milk and add to the mixture.
Dissolve the other teaspoon of baking soda in the molasses and add it to the bowl.
Gradually add flour until the mixture is stiff.

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.

Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together78,219 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

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original
Jalapenofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, milk, butter, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.