Skip to main content
Dessert

New England Ginger Bread

A moist gingerbread made with molasses, butter, eggs, ginger, baking soda, flour, and hot water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

New England Ginger Bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the batter

  1. Melt the butter and stir it into the molasses.

  2. Add the beaten eggs, ground ginger, and baking soda.

  3. Stir in the flour gradually.

  4. Add the hot water a little at a time.

Bake

  1. Bake in shallow pans.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Molasses + flourtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,429 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Butter and flour 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

Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and deep sweetness with a robust flavor.
Flour
Builds the structure that holds the gingerbread's crumb together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and richness, helping bind the batter and set it in the oven.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses's acidity to release gas that lifts the batter.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the crumb and carries flavor.
Ground ginger
Provides the warm, spicy aroma that defines the gingerbread.

The step that matters

Add the hot water a little at a time.. The batter is thin and can turn lumpy if liquid goes in all at once. Adding the water gradually lets the flour hydrate evenly and keeps the batter smooth and well mixed before it goes into the oven.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, butter, 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.

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes