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Dessert

Excellent Ginger Snaps

A sweet ginger cookie made with molasses, butter, lard, baking soda, egg, and ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Excellent Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Boil the molasses and shortening together for 5 minutes.

  2. Let it cool for a few minutes.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg and baking soda while holding it over the flour to prevent foaming.

  4. Add ginger to taste.

  5. Mix until thin.

Roll and bake

  1. Roll out thin.

  2. Bake for a few minutes until done.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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 sweetness, moisture and the dark, rich flavour of the cookie.
Butter and lard
Provides fat that keeps the cookies tender and helps them spread slightly as they bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses' acidity to release gas, lifting the dough and helping it brown.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure so the cookies hold together.
Ginger
Supplies the spicy aroma that defines the cookie.

The step that matters

Stirring in the baking soda. Baking soda reacts with the acid in warm molasses and releases carbon dioxide, so it foams vigorously. Holding the mixture over the flour lets the foam settle safely without spilling, and the reaction gives the cookies lift and colour.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, egg, 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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