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Dessert

Ginger Drops

A sweet, ginger-flavored drop cookie made with sugar, molasses, butter, and baking soda.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Drops

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.

Prepare

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

Make the batter

  1. In a bowl, mix sugar, molasses, ginger, and melted butter.

  2. Dissolve baking soda in boiling water and add to the mixture.

  3. Stir until thick.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into a greased dripping pan.

  2. Bake until warm and soft.

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. 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. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Ginger + buttertop 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

Molasses
Provides dark color, rich flavor and moisture, and helps the drops stay soft.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and boiling water to lighten the batter and help it rise.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the drops brown and set as they bake.
Melted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and a smooth, rich texture.
Ginger
Supplies the main spiced aroma that defines the drops.

The step that matters

Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water. Baking soda needs to be fully dissolved so it reacts evenly through the batter. Undissolved pockets can cause uneven rising and bitter spots in the finished drops.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, 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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