Name: To Make Gingerbread Cake
Ingredients: 1 ½ pounds treacle; 1 ½ ounces ground ginger; ½ ounce caraway seeds; 2 ounces allspice; 4 ounces orange peel, finely shredded; ½ pound sweet butter; 6 ounces blanched almonds; 1 pound honey; 1 ½ ounces baking soda; as much fine flour as needed to make a moderate dough

Why it works: Ginger and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,620 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Allspice + orangetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together727 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Almond + flourtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,673 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Orange + almondtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,125 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

Swap the caraway

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ginger, allspice, orange, butter, almond, honey, flour):

Cinnamonfits better
Cardamomfits better
Nutmegfits better
Carawaythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against ginger, allspice, orange, butter, almond, honey, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

To Make Gingerbread Cake