Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
New York Gingerbread
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
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Make the dough
In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Stir in the milk, ginger, mustard, cream of tartar, and baking soda.
Gradually add the flour until well combined.
Shape and bake
Roll the dough out on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.
Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes or until golden.
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.
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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 + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Ginger + mustardtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,456 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter 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 main structure that sets as the dough bakes.
- Butter
- Creamed with sugar to trap air and add richness and tenderness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the dough and helps it brown as it bakes.
- Eggs
- Bind the dough and add structure and richness as they set.
- Baking soda
- Reacts with the acid in the dough to produce gas that helps it rise.
- Cream of tartar
- Adds acidity that activates the baking soda and stabilizes the texture.
The step that matters
Adding the eggs one at a time. Beating each egg in fully before the next keeps the creamed butter and sugar emulsified and airy. Adding them all at once can cause curdling and a denser dough.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg, mustard, cream):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cinnamonfits better
- Capersfits better
- Gingerthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, butter, milk, egg, mustard, cream. 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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