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Dessert

Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread loaf made with butter, sugar, molasses, sour milk, flour, spices, baking soda, and vinegar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Beat in the egg, then mix in the molasses and sour milk.

  3. In another bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda.

  4. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture, stirring until well combined.

  5. Add the vinegar just before pouring the batter into the pans.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into greased pans and bake for about 30-35 minutes.

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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich, slightly bitter sweetness.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and vinegar to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and tenderizes the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and moisture.

The step that matters

Add the vinegar just before pouring the batter into the pans. Baking soda and acid react as soon as they are mixed, releasing gas. If the batter stands too long before baking, much of that lift is lost, leaving a flatter, denser cake.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, molasses, milk, flour, cinnamon. 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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