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Dessert

Ginger Drop-cakes

A sweet cake made with eggs, lard, molasses, brown sugar, ginger, baking soda, water, 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 Drop-cakes

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.

Prepare

  1. Preheat oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the eggs in a large bowl.

  3. Mix in the lard, molasses, brown sugar, and ground ginger.

Make the batter

  1. Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water.

  2. Add the dissolved baking soda to the mixture.

  3. Gradually stir in the flour until well combined.

Bake

  1. Drop tablespoon-sized portions onto a slightly greased baking sheet, spacing them about 3 inches apart.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set in the oven.
Lard
Adds fat for a tender crumb and rich texture.
Baking molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a dark color to the cakes.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, and helps the cakes brown.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic molasses to lift the cakes and aid browning.
Flour
Provides the main structure as its proteins set during baking.

The step that matters

Dissolving the baking soda in boiling water. Baking soda must be fully dissolved before it is added, so it spreads evenly through the batter. Unevenly distributed soda can leave bitter or soapy pockets and uneven rising.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, molasses, sugar, 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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