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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A sweet ginger cookie made with molasses, sugar, shortening, ginger, baking soda, vinegar, egg, and flour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 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, combine molasses, sugar, shortening, ginger, baking soda, vinegar, and egg. Mix until well combined.

  2. Gradually add flour until the dough is firm enough to roll out.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough on a floured surface and cut into desired shapes.

  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. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  4. Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Sugar + vinegartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds deep sweetness, dark color, and moisture that keeps the snaps chewy.
Sugar
Sweetens the dough and helps the cookies brown and crisp as they bake.
Shortening
Provides fat that tenderizes the dough and gives a short, crisp bite.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses and vinegar to lift the dough and promote spreading and browning.
Vinegar
Acidifies the dough so it reacts with baking soda, helping the snaps rise and stay light.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the dough be rolled out and hold cut shapes.

The step that matters

Adding the flour. Flour should be added gradually until the dough is firm enough to roll out. Too little leaves the dough sticky and hard to cut, while too much makes the snaps dry and tough. Stop when the dough holds its shape.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Jalapenofits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

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