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Dessert

Egoless Gingerbread

A quick gingerbread cookie made without eggs, using shortening, molasses, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Egoless Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the shortening, molasses, and brown sugar until smooth.

  2. Add the sour milk and baking soda dissolved in 1 teaspoon of hot water.

  3. Sift the spices and salt with the flour, then mix into the wet ingredients.

  4. If desired, fold in the raisins before baking.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a tube pan and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 40 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. Flour + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Cinnamon + raisintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Baking soda
Reacts with the sour milk to release gas, lifting the batter as it bakes.
Sour milk
Its acidity activates the baking soda and adds tenderness to the crumb.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and the characteristic sweet, rich flavor.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps keep the crumb moist and soft.
Shortening
Creaming with sugar traps air and tenderizes the crumb with fat.
Flour
Provides the structure that sets the cake as it bakes.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water before adding it. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly with the sour milk. Lumps can leave pockets of bitter residue and uneven rising.

“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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