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Dessert

Ginger Cookies

A sweet cookie made with butter, brown sugar, molasses, sour milk, ginger, spices, egg, flour, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger Cookies

Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

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

  2. In a bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar together.

  3. Add the molasses, sour milk, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and egg. Mix well.

  4. Gradually add the flour and baking soda, mixing until combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the batter into cups and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden.

  2. Serve hot with tea.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 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

Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the cookies a tender texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cookies brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color and a deep sweet flavor.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda so the cookies rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Flour
Provides the main structure that holds the cookies together.

The step that matters

Gradually add the flour and baking soda, mixing until combined. Overmixing once the flour is in develops gluten, which makes the cookies tough. Mix only until no dry flour remains, so the texture stays tender.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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