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Dessert

Ginger Bread

A moist ginger bread cake made with honey or molasses, eggs, oil, flour, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Ginger Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in a little hot water.

  2. Combine the dissolved soda with honey (or molasses), beaten eggs, and warm oil or melted butter.

  3. Stir in the warm, sifted flour and baking powder.

  4. Add the powdered ginger and salt, then mix in the boiling water.

  5. For enhanced flavor, boil a vanilla pod in the water before adding it to the mixture, then remove the pod.

  6. Optionally, add chopped almonds with the flour.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the batter into a baking dish and bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C).

  2. Decorate the top with whole blanched almonds and thinly sliced candied citrus before serving.

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. Vanilla + almondtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,673 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Honey + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,262 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Honey + gingertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Honey
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the gingerbread stay soft.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the baked crumb together.
Baking soda
Reacts with the honey's acidity to lift the batter and aid browning.
Baking powder
Adds extra lift so the gingerbread rises as it bakes.
Powdered ginger
Supplies the main spiced aroma that defines the gingerbread.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly through the batter. Undissolved pockets can leave bitter spots and uneven rise.

Swap the vanilla

The recipe marks vanilla as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (honey, egg, butter, flour, ginger, almond):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Vanillathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against honey, egg, butter, flour, ginger, almond. 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.

More gingerbread recipes

Soft 197Cake 72Nuts 68Molasses 52Pudding 38Cookies 36 See all 364 →

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