Why it works: Sorghum and ginger work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 31 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
Directions
In a large bowl, beat together the molasses, brown sugar, and eggs.
Add the hot lard and hot water, mixing well.
Dissolve the baking soda in a little water and add it to the mixture.
Stir in the ground ginger and any additional spices if desired.
Mix until the dough is rather soft.
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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Sorghum + gingertop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together31 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + gingertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together14,054 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Sorghum + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together78 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sorghum + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and ginger barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 14,054 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
Swap the ginger
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sorghum, sugar, egg):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Gingerthe original
- Allspicefits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sorghum, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
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