Name: Gixger-bread
Ingredients: 1 cup molasses; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup butter; 1 cup sour milk; 1 teaspoon ginger; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; ½ teaspoon cloves; Flour (as needed)

Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓

Gixger-bread

Ingredients

Directions

In a large bowl, combine molasses, sugar, butter, and sour milk.
Add ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, mixing well.
Gradually stir in flour until the mixture is very stiff.

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.

Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,189 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,341 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Swap the ginger

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

Nutmegfits better
Cardamomfits better
Allspicefits better
Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, butter, milk, cinnamon, clove, flour. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.