Why it works: Tea and ginger work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 216 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Ginger Cookies
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
In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, molasses, egg, saleratus, ginger, and vinegar.
Gradually add the flour, mixing until well combined.
Shape and bake
Shape the dough into cookies and place them on a baking sheet.
Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.
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.
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Tea + gingertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together216 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,225 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,116 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Ginger + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,564 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Provides the structure that holds the cookies together as they bake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the cookies brown and stay tender.
- Molasses
- Adds moisture, deep flavor, and extra browning to the cookies.
- Egg
- Binds the dough and adds structure and richness.
- Saleratus
- Reacts with the vinegar and acid in the dough to produce gas that helps the cookies rise.
- Ginger
- Contributes the spicy aroma that defines the cookies.
The step that matters
Gradually add the flour, mixing until well combined. Once flour is added, its proteins form gluten when mixed. Stopping once the flour is just combined keeps the cookies tender rather than tough.
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tea, sugar, molasses, egg, vinegar, flour):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Allspicefits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against tea, sugar, molasses, egg, vinegar, 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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