Name: Hard Times Molasses Cake
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup buttermilk; ½ cup butter; 1 teaspoon baking soda; 1 tablespoon ground ginger; 4 cups all-purpose flour; coarse sea salt (formerly 'bay salt') to taste

Why it works: Buttermilk and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,721 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Hard Times Molasses Cake

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, sugar, buttermilk, and softened butter.
Add the baking soda, ground ginger, and flour, mixing until well combined.
If using lard instead of butter, ensure to work a little salt into the lard before mixing.

Bake

Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and bake for about 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

Buttermilk + flourtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,721 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + buttermilktop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,973 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Molasses + buttermilktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together526 recipes

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

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 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: Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and moisture to the cake.
Buttermilk: Its acidity reacts with baking soda to lift the batter and keeps the crumb tender.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic buttermilk and molasses to produce gas that helps the cake rise.
Flour: Provides the structure that holds the cake together as it bakes.
Butter: Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Jalapenofits better
Nutmegfits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, buttermilk, butter, flour. 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.