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Dessert

Alum Ginger-bread

A ginger bread dough made with molasses, lard, ginger, salt, boiling water, alum, baking soda, 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 ginger are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,116 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Alum Ginger-bread

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. In a bowl, combine molasses, melted lard, ginger, salt, and boiling water.

  2. Dissolve the alum in half of the boiling water and the baking soda in the other half.

  3. Stir the dissolved mixtures into the molasses mixture.

  4. Add enough flour to form a kneadable dough.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll the dough to about ½ inch thick and cut into oblong shapes.

  2. Bake in a moderately hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until done.

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and deep flavor, and makes the dough dark and soft.
Lard
Adds fat, which tenderizes the crumb and keeps the gingerbread from drying out.
Flour
Provides the structure that holds the kneaded dough together and lets it be rolled and cut.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to release carbon dioxide gas, which lifts the dough.
Alum
Acts as an acid that reacts with the baking soda, releasing more gas to add lift.
Ginger
Provides the warm, spicy aroma that defines gingerbread.

The step that matters

Combining the alum and baking soda solutions into the molasses. Alum and baking soda react as soon as they meet, releasing carbon dioxide gas. That gas is what lifts the dough, so the mixture should be worked into the dough and baked without long delays to keep the rise.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, 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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