Why it works: Ginger and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,833 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-one, which smells mushroom, metallic. The science ↓
Molasses Cake
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make and bake the cake
In a bowl, mix together the molasses and butter.
Add the milk, baking soda, flour, ginger, eggs, and orange peel. Mix until smooth.
Pour the batter into a greased tin pan.
Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
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.
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Ginger + orangetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,833 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Adds sweetness, dark colour and a moist, rich texture to the cake.
- Butter
- Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavour.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas, helping the cake rise.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the batter into a cake.
- Eggs
- Add structure and richness, helping the batter bind and set when baked.
- Ginger
- Adds warm, spicy aroma that complements the molasses.
The step that matters
Mix until smooth. Mixing the batter until smooth combines the ingredients evenly. Overmixing after the flour is added can develop gluten and make the cake tough, so stop once no dry streaks remain.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, butter, milk, flour, ginger, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, milk, flour, ginger, 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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