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Dessert

Ginger-bread

A moist gingerbread loaf made with eggs, sugar, molasses, butter, lard, flour, spices, baking soda, coffee, and optional dried fruit or nuts.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Ginger-bread

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 ↓

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the batter

  1. In a large bowl, mix the eggs, sugar, molasses, and the butter and lard mixture.

  2. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, and baking soda.

  3. Mix the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot coffee and add it to the batter.

  5. Let the batter stand for 15 minutes before pouring it into a greased baking pan.

  6. If desired, fold in currants, raisins, or nuts.

Bake

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean.

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.

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.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Cinnamon + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together895 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets the crumb as the cake bakes.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and coffee to produce gas that lifts the batter.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, dark color, moisture, and the characteristic gingerbread flavor.
Butter and lard mixed
Adds fat for tenderness and moisture in the crumb.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the coffee. Baking soda needs an acid to react and release gas. Dissolving it fully in the coffee and mixing it evenly into the batter spreads the leavening so the cake rises uniformly rather than in patches or with a bitter soda taste.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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