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Dessert

Ginger-nuts

A sweet ginger cookie made with sugar, molasses, ginger, spices, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Ginger-nuts

Oven, in the book's wordsA very moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Stir the sugar and butter together.

  2. Add the ginger, spices, molasses, and enough flour to form a dough.

  3. Knead the dough well and shape it into small cakes.

Bake

  1. Place the cakes on baking sheets.

  2. Mix molasses with a little water and brush it over the cakes before baking.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the shaped cakes together.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown during baking.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark colour and rich flavour.
Ginger
Provides the main warm, spicy aroma and bite.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, sweet aroma that rounds out the spice blend.
Ground cloves and allspice
Add deep, warm spice aroma to the dough.

The step that matters

Baking until done. Molasses and sugar brown quickly, so the cakes can scorch on the outside before they are fully dry inside. Watch the colour closely and remove them once they are set and firm.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, molasses, clove, allspice, cinnamon, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, clove, allspice, cinnamon, 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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