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Dessert

Golden Ginger Drops

A small cookie made with butter, flour, brown sugar, molasses, ginger, spices, and baking soda, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Golden Ginger Drops

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Cream the butter in a mixing bowl.

  2. Gradually add the brown sugar and mix well.

  3. Stir in the molasses until combined.

  4. In a separate bowl, mix and sift the flour, salt, and spices.

  5. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water and add it to the butter mixture alternately with the flour mixture.

  6. Gently fold in the beaten egg until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the batter into small buttered gem pans.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 minutes.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Clove + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Butter
Creamed with sugar to create a tender, rich crumb and flavour.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
Molasses
Adds moisture, dark colour and a deep, sweet flavour to the cookies.
Baking soda
Reacts with the molasses and boiling water to lift the batter and help it rise.
Egg
Binds the batter and adds structure and richness as it sets in the oven.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness, moisture and a caramel-like flavour to the cookies.

The step that matters

Adding the baking soda dissolved in boiling water. Baking soda needs moisture and heat to react and lift the batter. Dissolving it fully in boiling water and alternating it with the flour mixture keeps the batter evenly aerated and prevents pockets of soda or a dense texture.

Swap the ginger

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

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

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