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Dessert

Gingerbread

A sweet dough made with molasses, sour milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, brown sugar, butter, and ginger, baked into cookies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Gingerbread

Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Gingerbread

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

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

Make and shape the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix together the molasses, sour milk, eggs, baking soda, cream of tartar, brown sugar, butter, and ginger.

  2. Stir until the mixture is stiff enough to roll out.

  3. Roll out the dough and cut it into desired shapes.

Bake

  1. Place the cut pieces in a large dripping pan and bake 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.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds moisture, dark color, and a rich, sweet flavor to the dough.
Sour milk
Its acidity reacts with the baking soda to help the cookies rise and stay tender.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure as the cookies set in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour milk and molasses to produce gas that leavens the cookies.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to aid rising and texture.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the dough and promotes browning and a soft, moist texture.

The step that matters

Stirring until the dough is stiff enough to roll out. Overmixing develops gluten and makes cookies tough, while stopping too early leaves the dough too soft to cut cleanly. The dough should be firm enough to hold its shape when rolled.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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