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Gingerbread Loaf

A moist loaf made with butter, sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, sour cream, eggs, flour, baking soda, and currants or raisins.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Gingerbread Loaf

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Gingerbread Loaf

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.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together until light.

  2. Beat in the molasses, ginger, and cinnamon.

  3. Warm the mixture slightly and whip in the sour cream.

  4. Add the beaten yolks of the eggs.

  5. Alternately mix in the flour and frothed egg whites.

  6. Beat the batter from the bottom for five minutes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a greased mold with a funnel in the middle at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Ensure it does not burn; the batter should be the consistency of pound cake.

  3. Fold in the currants or raisins for added flavor.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Flour
Provides the structure that holds the loaf together as it bakes.
Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure and richness to the crumb.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and the dark color and deep flavor typical of gingerbread.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic sour cream and molasses to produce gas that helps the loaf rise.
Sour cream
Adds moisture and tangy acidity that tenderizes the crumb and activates the baking soda.

The step that matters

Alternating the flour and frothed egg whites. Adding flour and whipped egg whites in alternating portions keeps the batter airy and blends the flour in gently. Overmixing once the flour is in develops gluten, which makes the loaf tough and dense.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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