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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet, spiced cookie made with molasses, lard, ginger, and flour, baked until crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,800 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Ginger Snaps

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a pot, combine the molasses and lard, and boil together.

  2. Once cool, dissolve the baking soda in a little cold water and add it to the mixture.

  3. Stir in the ginger, black pepper, and salt.

  4. Gradually add flour until the mixture thickens.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough very thin and cut into shapes.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until crisp.

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 + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Orleans molasses
Provides sweetness, dark color and the characteristic deep flavor of the snaps.
Lard
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and helps the snaps turn crisp.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lighten the dough and promote browning.
Flour
Builds structure and thickens the dough so it can be rolled and cut.
Ground ginger
Supplies the warm, spicy aroma that defines the cookie.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin. Thin dough has little moisture to hold, so it dries and crisps in the oven rather than staying soft. Thick pieces may stay chewy in the middle and can burn at the edges before they are fully set.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, pepper, 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.

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