Name: Ginger Drop-cakes
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup hot water; ½ cup butter; 4½ cups flour; 1 egg; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 tablespoon baking soda

Why it works: Molasses and sugar 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 Drop-cakes

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure. The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the batter

In a large bowl, mix molasses, sugar, hot water, and melted butter.
Add flour, egg, ginger, and baking soda; stir until combined.

Bake

Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto a buttered baking pan.
Bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

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.

Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,225 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,116 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together92,116 recipes

Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,564 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

Flour: Provides the structure that holds the drop cakes together as they bake.
Molasses: Adds sweetness, moisture, deep flavor, and dark color to the batter.
Baking soda: Reacts with the acidic molasses to produce gas that lifts the cakes as they bake.
Butter: Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Egg: Binds the batter and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the cakes brown during baking.

The step that matters

Stir until just combined. Once flour is wet, mixing too long develops gluten, which makes the cakes tough and dense instead of tender.

Swap the ginger

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

Cinnamonfits better
Nutmegfits better
Jalapenofits about as well
Gingerthe original

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