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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet, molasses-based cookie flavored with ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Ginger Cookies

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.

Dissolve the leaveners

  1. Dissolve the alum in ⅔ cup of boiling water.

  2. Dissolve the baking soda in the same amount of boiling water.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the butter, sugar, molasses, dissolved alum, and dissolved baking soda.

  2. Add ginger to taste and mix well.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together14,054 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  4. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + gingertop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,152 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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

Butter
Adds fat that gives the cookies a tender, rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown as they bake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, sweetness, deep colour and a strong flavour to the cookies.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and alum to release gas that lifts the dough.
Alum
Works with the baking soda to create additional lift and a crisper texture.

The step that matters

Dissolve the alum and baking soda fully in boiling water. Fully dissolved leaveners spread evenly through the dough, so gas forms throughout rather than in pockets. Undissolved granules can leave bitter spots or uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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