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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet, spiced cookie made with sugar, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, butter, lard, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ginger Snaps

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.

Make the dough

  1. In a large bowl, mix the sugar and molasses until well combined.

  2. Add the eggs, butter, and lard, and mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.

  4. Dissolve the baking soda in the hot water and add to the mixture. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Bake

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the dough onto a baking sheet.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) 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.

  1. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  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

Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, moisture and the dark color typical of ginger snaps.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor, and helps the cookies spread and turn tender.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the cookies tender and helps them spread.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure and moisture.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to lift and loosen the dough as it bakes.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in the hot water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved so it is evenly distributed through the dough. Unevenly mixed soda can leave bitter or soapy patches and uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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