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 ↓
Soft Ginger Bread
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the batter
Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the ginger, cinnamon, and sour milk.
Dissolve the baking soda in warm water and add it to the mixture.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined.
Bake
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan and smooth the top.
Bake for 30-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center 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 + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6,380 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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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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Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,341 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,655 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Sugar
- Sweetens the batter and helps create a tender, light crumb when creamed with butter.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and creaming it traps air that lightens the texture.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and bind the batter as they are beaten in.
- Sour milk
- Adds moisture and acidity, which reacts with the baking soda to help the cake rise.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acidity of the sour milk to produce gas that leavens the batter.
- Flour
- Provides the structure that sets the batter as it bakes.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour, mixing until just combined. Once flour meets liquid, gluten begins to form, and overmixing makes the bread tough and dense rather than soft. Stopping as soon as the flour is incorporated keeps the crumb tender.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon, milk, flour):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits about as well
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, cinnamon, milk, 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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